“Big goal ahead of us”

The short winter break is over. Soon, the ball will be rolling again in the Bundesliga! On Sunday afternoon (5:30pm CET), VfL Bochum 1848 welcome VfL Wolfsburg for the first home match of the year. Ahead of the clash against the Lower Saxons, who are level on points, head coach Thomas Reis and Director of Sport Sebastian Schindzielorz answered journalists’ questions.

Thomas Reis on…

… the personnel situation: Simon Zoller, Konstantinos Stafylidis and Paul Grave are not available. Erhan Mašović will have to sit out a game after receiving his fifth yellow card. A few others are still a bit behind in training. For Danny Blum, a spot in the squad comes too early.

… the winter break: “It was important for the team to clear their heads for a few days. It was more a mental recovery than a physical one. We want to allow fewer scoring chances in the second half of the season for our opponents and become more clinical up front. Going forward, we want to be alert.

… VfL Wolfsburg: Even if Wolfsburg have to replace a few players, they still have enormous quality in their squad. They are a very dangerous team with a fast switching game. They will certainly be brave and try to turn the tables on us. We want to prevent that. In the first leg, we had to learn the hard way. But we’ve developed very well. Nobody would have thought that we’d be level on points with Wolfsburg at the start of the second half.

… New signing Jürgen Locadia: We wanted to improve our attack and also have a slightly different type of player. Jürgen Locadia is technically strong and can also drop to initiate an attack. He’s strong at finishing and simply has a nose for goal. He has been perfectly integrated by the team. Now we have to get him to understand our philosophy and tactics as quickly as possible.

… Cristian Gamboa: Cristian Gamboa made a very, very good impression. Of course, he didn’t like the fact that he was out last time. Now he’ll get another chance. If nothing else happens, he plays a big role in my thoughts for Sunday.

… the upcoming home game with no fans: We have to live with the situation. We’ve already had a ‘ghost game’ this season in Augsburg. Of course, we imagined it differently. The euphoria in the first half of the season was enormous. It was always transferred to the team and back to the fans. The guys now have to motivate themselves, and they will, because we have a very big goal in mind.

Sebastian Schindzielorz on…

… the size of the squad: “We have a well-stocked squad. Most of the players are fit at the moment. We have possibilities to vary on all positions. That’s why I’m not worried about the size of the squad – despite potential positive Corona tests.

… New signing Jürgen Locadia: In addition their athletic quality, it’s always important for us to know what goals a player has when they come to Bochum. We had an open and transparent chat. Jürgen Locadia came across as highly motivated. This transfer is a good thing for both sides of the party. Jürgen can help us athletically and at the same time we offer him the Bundesliga stage.

… Corona protection measures: We have once again reminded our players of the virus. We already have a very high standard of precautionary measures. But you simply can’t prevent everything. But I think the boys have behaved very well in this situation so far.