Oliver Baumann: "We need to pull together for the run-in"

Hello Oliver, you've suffered four consecutive defeats of late. How do you deal with that?

Oliver Baumann: It's obviously easier when things are going well and the results are good, but I generally just try to get on with it, as always. That's the best way to deal with it. However, I obviously try to do more; I try to add more tension and pressure in every training session, both vocally, as well as in terms of my body language. We obviously talk about the recent games as a team as well. We examine everything honestly and have very open discussions.

Does your experience help you assess the situation better?

Baumann: I've experienced tough times in my career while at Freiburg. Back then it was about survival in the Bundesliga. It's a completely different type of pressure – the whole club's existence and players' careers depend on it. Whoever has gone through that will have come out stronger. We're nearer the top and want to achieve the maximum possible, so we are the ones putting most pressure on ourselves. The recent defeats have hurt the most. We all know what we need to do in the coming weeks.

Has anything changed at the club as a result of the defeats?

Baumann: Fundamentally, no. We have a good team spirit in the dressing room. The results of the past few weeks can't change that. But as I have already said, we speak only. We have very intensive discussions; people are allowed to let their emotions out and say their true opinions. That's just how it is. We need to pull together for the end-of-season run-in. If we don't win games, we will just fall back down the table. Nobody wants that. That's not our aim. We don't want to look back on the season and ask ourselves “what if this or that happened”.

You travel to Hannover on Saturday…

Baumann: As of this week, they have a new manager. That goes to show how much pressure they're under at Hannover at the moment. They are 15th in the league, haven't won for a long time and are not far off the bottom. My personal preparations don't change because of the switch in manager, but it could change our approach as a team. It's do or die for 96; I know the situation they are in. As a result, I expect a scrappy game with a lot of tackling. We need to be fully committed to that, otherwise we will lose. We need to be the team that invests more into the match.

What do you need to do in order to return to form?

Baumann: There isn't a single cause for the results in recent weeks. We are all disappointed by them and we're trying to buck the trend, but you also shouldn't place too much focus on them. Gladbach were much better than us, we have to acknowledge that. It was very tight in Dortmund, we were poor in Cologne and who knows what would have happened in the Bayern game if we had gotten the penalty. These are all games that you can lose, but don't necessarily have to lose. Everyone needs to play to their best so that we can play optimally as a team. That's the challenge we are facing right now. If we can manage that and produce our performances from training on a real match, I am certain that we will start to pick up more points.

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