FIRST TEAM
02/28/2019

Nagelsmann: "We need to fight"

Julian Nagelsmann spoke at the press conference prior to the match against Eintracht Frankfurt (Saturday at 15:30 CET/Live Ticker at achtzehn99.de) about the personnel situation, the opposition and the importance of Andrej Kramaric.

Julian Nagelsmann on…

…the personnel situation: "It isn't looking too good at present. As of now, Kevin Vogt, Benjamin Hübner, Dennis Geiger, Leonardo Bittencourt and Florian Grillitsch are out, while Lukas Rupp has a longer-term injury as you know. Then there's Pavel Kaderabek, who's suspended. Ermin Bicakcic is still struggling with his calf. It's still causing him problems because his calf is too stiff to play more than 20 minutes. As of now, he certainly won't feature. We don't have many players available."

…dealing with opposition pressure: "We had three clear chances in Leipzig that we should've made more of. Then there wouldn't have been any more spells of opposition pressure. Frankfurt have extraordinary quality going forward, they're a good Bundesliga team that currently deserve to be above us. But we'll put in another good showing and create chances which we'll then have to make more of."

…Eintracht's style of play: "Frankfurt defend extremely aggressively in their own half and play a lot of balls in behind. But it's not a case of hit and hope, there's a clear structure to it. They attack the second balls, which is difficult to defend. We need to find 11 healthy players and then make it clear to them that we need to fight. We have a plan and we'll show a good performance."

…the significance of Andrej Kramaric: "He's been very important for us since he arrived. With his 43 goals and numerous assists, he plays a very special role for us. He demands the respect of the opposition, works incredibly hard and always goes to his limits. All the while remaining humble and self-critical. He knows how good he is but he never lets it show."

The social media fan question of the week:

How many matches do you watch as part of your analysis and are they usually the opposition's most recent games or ones where you can analyse the style of play and tactics?

"Both actually. Benjamin Glück watches the opposition's last four or five games. I watch around 60 minutes of the last two or three matches, particularly focusing on changes after the break. If those games did not involve formations that we expect to be used against us, then we dig a little deeper into the past and usually look at our previous match against them. It's a diverse mix."

The opposition's form:

Eintracht are unbeaten in eight competitive games and have also reached the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League after beating Hoffenheim's Champions League group-stage opponents Shakhtar Donetsk 4-1 in the second leg of their last-32 tie. However, the Eagles have only won three of their last eight matches, drawing all of the other five. They returned to winning ways last weekend, however, as they secured a comfortable 3-0 win over Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga.

Head-to-head record:

The two teams have faced off in the Bundesliga on 19 previous occasions. Hoffenheim have emerged victorious eight times, while Frankfurt have triumphed four times and seven games ended all square. However, TSG lost the reverse fixture 2-1 while the last meeting in Frankfurt in April 2018 ended 1-1.

 

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