Niederlechner: "We've been outstanding recently"

Florian, you moved to Augsburg in the summer. Are you liking it there?

"Absolutely. I settled into the new team and life at the club quickly after moving to Augsburg. It's just nice to be playing Bundesliga football near where I grew up in Upper Bavaria."

You're Augsburg's most prolific forward with seven goals and four assists. Are you satisfied with your haul?

"It's always important for a striker to be clinical and to have a good goal ratio. That's especially the case when you're at a new club. I can be satisfied with my tally to date. But that's relatively unimportant compared to the success of the team as a whole and as long as we're enjoying success on the pitch, I don't care who gets the goals."

You have 17 points from 14 matches. How do you feel about that tally?

"At the start of the season, we had some problems with our results and didn't start the campaign the way we'd been hoping to. But we've become more stable since then and some of our performances and results have been outstanding, especially in recent games. We're on the right track and we want to keep playing to our full potential."

You're up against TSG on Friday. What kind of game are you expecting and where do you see Hoffenheim's strengths?

"Hoffenheim didn't have a good start to the season either, with Julian Nagelsmann leaving the club. But then they put together a really good run. It'll be a difficult game, as is always the case in Hoffenheim. But our self-confidence has grown recently and we'll give everything we've got to come out on top in Hoffenheim."

There are still three matches remaining in the first half-season. How important is it to go into the break with a good feeling and some successes under your belt?

"We're developing well. We've taken 10 points from the past four matches and we want to boost our points tally as much as we possibly can in the English week leading up to the winter break. That starts in Hoffenheim. Putting some distance between ourselves and the relegation zone would definitely give us a good feeling. Our aim will then be to start the second-half season better than we did the first."