SPIELFELD
08/06/2021

Hoeness: "We're hungry for success"

Head coach Sebastian Hoeness is heading into his second Bundesliga season with TSG Hoffenheim. The Munich native's debut campaign was accompanied by immense challenges, with coronavirus infections, numerous injuries and the strain of competing on three fronts all making for a difficult first year in the Kraichgau. "Experiencing all of that in my first season was a total baptism of fire. It doesn't get tougher than that; I was thrown in at the deep end and I had to swim to safety," said Hoeness in an interview with club magazine SPIELFELD, which will be published on Monday (9 August).

Hoeness has set himself ambitious goals for his second season as a Bundesliga coach. He, too, was not satisfied with the last season's 11th-place finish, and this year he wants to "cause trouble for the clubs that are financially stronger and leave one or two of them in our wake". He has clear demands for his players if they are to finish in the top half of the table: "We want to play active football; show dominance and dynamism. Dominance means combining a possession-based approach with a dynamic component, i.e., repeatedly getting in behind. The switch phases are extremely important: defending forwards, winning the ball and then going straight for goal."

However, the 39-year-old has been satisfied with his players' mentality since his move from the Bayern Munich reserves to the Kraichgau over a year ago: "You can see it in the guys every day: they're winners and they want to win. And when they suddenly sense they can achieve something, that desire grows and grows. We're hungry for success." The many absences last season turned Hoeness into something of a "crisis manager"  as he himself puts it within the club: "I simply had to react continuously to situations that could not be planned in advance. It was a season overshadowed by the corona pandemic, one that started later but still finished at the same time and we had additional challenges in the Europa League and that meant many games within a few weeks."

For Hoeness, who was only able to field the same XI in two consecutive games, periods of frustration set in: "Due to the corona issue, there were simply no blueprints at all that we could work from at times. The year was very, very demanding and, yes, a very, very big challenge. But in the end, I can say that we overcome all the hurdles."

The tactician does see some areas in need of improvement, however. TSG often fell behind in the early stages of games in 2020/21; in the new season, the head coach wants to avoid that as much as possible: "That's an important topic which we're addressing: how do we start the game better? You don't just do it differently; you first have to be aware of it and then sharpen your senses for it. In pre-season, for example, we worked on this in training sessions using extra incentives: we often played three 10-minute games, with goals counting double in the first three minutes. These are things that we're working on intensively. Instead of playing eight different systems."

 

SPIELFELD is the TSG 1899 Hoffenheim club magazine. Brimming with important content about TSG and the region, SPIELFELD is published 11 times per year. You can pick up your copy free of charge in the Fan Shop – or have it delivered to your home. The shipping cost is only €18.99.

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