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Ahead of #FCATSG: “The right attitude isimportant"
Julian Nagelsmann on…
…the opponent:
FCA are a physical side under their new manager Manuel Baum. They want to win the ball and push forward. They are quick on the counter-attack and are also keen to win the ball straight back after they have lost it. Manuel Baum hasn’t been there for very long, but you can already tell that he has made a difference. We noticed that when we watched them in their friendlies over the winter break. They play a very modern style of football.
…the players:
We’ve got a few injuries at the moment. Jeremy Toljan is still having trouble with muscular problems so we still don’t know if he’ll be able to play on Saturday. Niklas Süle is looking good however and will train with the rest of the team again on Thursday. The doctors think he will be ready for Saturday. Pavel Kaderabek is definitely unavailable for Saturday. He’s been struggling with calf muscle problems and we want to make sure he doesn’t suffer any more damage. Lukas Rupp hasn’t been able to train since he picked up a knock to his knee in the game against Frankfurt. It got worse over the break and he wasn’t able to join in with team training. We don’t know how long he’ll be out for yet.
… how things are going football wise:
Preparations have gone very well. It was the right decision to stay here. We’ve had to postpone the odd training session but otherwise we’ve always had top conditions to work in. We’ve got used to the cold now, which will be ever-present on Saturday in Augsburg. That does not guarantee that we will win the first seven matches but it is also certainly not something negative either.
Every player has been fully involved and worked hard. Nobody here is ready to put their feet up. We’ve still not even had half the matches of the season and everyone knows that. The team wants to hone in on the performances from the first 16 games and continue to improve. We all feel ready. The spirit in this team and their desire is extraordinary.
The pressure and expectation on us increased after the results we’ve had so far but I think that the team are growing into having that around them. We want to build on our performances, continue to play good football and dictate the play. That’s what we are demanding from ourselves.
Previous duels:
Hoffenheim and Augsburg have met ten times in the Bundesliga, with Hoffenheim claiming five wins to Augsburg’s three, while the points have been shared twice. The last few encounters have been kind to Hoffenheim, with a 3-1 success in Augsburg backed up by a 2-1 victory in Sinsheim last season. Mark Uth grabbed the winner on that occasion in the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena. He’ll be looking to pounce again on Saturday.
Opposition form:
Augsburg ended the first half of the season with a 1-0 victory away at Gladbach before picking up a point in the 1-1 draw at home to Dortmund. The question will be whether they can start the New Year in the same fashion. During the break they drew 1-1 with both Hannover 96 and AZ Alkmaar and head-coach Manuel Baum was very satisfied with the ten day training camp in Marbella. “I take nothing but positives away from these ten days. Conditions were perfect and everyone took part,” he said on the club’s website.
Key battles:
This is a match that could boil down to the duel of two players, TSG goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and Augsburg striker Marwin Hitz, and they could well decide the outcome of Saturday’s match. Nobody in the Bundesliga has had more shots on goal so far this season than Hitz (61), while Baumann lies second in the list of most shots stopped in 2016/17 (59).
Match facts and statistics »
