…the friendly defeat to St. Pauli: “The game didn’t pan out as we were hoping, especially in terms of the intensity and the distance run. We made some mistakes and were mentally out of the game for a while, and that’s something we’re all frustrated about. I don’t think anybody went home on Friday satisfied with our performance. But we play friendlies like this to give players who haven’t been getting as many minutes some game time. There’s naturally a different atmosphere compared to competitive games. We’re there to try out new things, but I don’t think we can be satisfied on the whole.”
…next weekend’s opponents: “I can speak from personal experience on this. In the end, it’s just another Bundesliga game and a normal week of preparation. We’re certainly aware of the difficulty of the fixture and the quality that they have, but we want to be courageous and go into the game united, as a team. One think is clear though, you have to be at your best to catch Bayern out. But what’s to say we won’t have a good day? We’ll try to bring our A game on Saturday and believe in our strengths.”
…the poor run of form against Bayern: “The most important thing is not to make a streak like this into a big issue; it’s crucial to keep looking to the future and not the past in situations like these. We need to pay attention to what’s ahead and show courage and self-confidence. We haven’t lost a single game in the last few weeks which has certainly given that a boost. We need to make the most of our opportunities, that’s the key. We’re the underdogs, so we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain at the end of the day.”
…the absence of Maximilian Eggestein: "He never stops running, which you see week after week. He closes down well and is a very good passer of the ball. He plays with a lot of intelligence which is a big part of the reason he’s so integral to our structure, which you could see we were lacking against St. Pauli.”