“End the year positively”

The 2-0 defeat against Bielefeld this Tuesday is history. It’s time to look ahead and focus on the upcoming match this Saturday. The last game of the year will kick off at 15:30 CET, when VfL Bochum 1848 face 1. FC Union Berlin on home soil at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion. In the run-up to the match against the eight-placed team from the capital city, Head Coach Thomas Reis and Sebastian Schindzielorz answered the journalists’ question at the press conference

Thomas Reis on…

… the personnel situation: Simon Zoller, Danny Blum, Eduard Löwen, Takuma Asano, Saulo Decarli and Tom Weilandt are still not fit to play. Up to now, it is still unclear whether Danilo Soares and Gerrit Holtmann are ready to take their place in the squad on Saturday, but we hope that both of them will be able to participate.

… the current mood: We quickly mulled over the game in Bielefeld. There was nothing to sugar-coat but there will quite certainly be games like that in the course of the season. The freshness has definitely returned. We’re playing at home, and we want to end the year 2021 on a positive note. We will give everything to give the fans at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion something to cheer about before the start of the winter break.

Union Berlin are doing a fantastic job: They’ve been playing in the Bundesliga the third year in a row now and therefor are well ahead of us. The team has totally internalised the style of play their manager Urs Fischer wants them to play. They have a big physical strength, play tough and are attacking very straight forward. They will be a hard nut to crack for us.

… Maxim Leitsch: The chances are good, that he will return to the starting XI. He’s a very dynamic player and after his long injury break, we simply had to give him a rest for the Bielefeld match. All our centre-backs are playing a decent season so far.

… Danilo Soares: Danilo tackles are incredible. We wanted to minimize the risk in his game, and that worked. He’s a player who always goes forward and is present in every training session. I’m absolutely satisfied with his progress. I hope he can play on Saturday.

Sebastian Schindzielorz on…

… the upcoming transfer period: The winter transfer period is always special. There is only a limited number of players on the market and only a few contracts expire. That’s why deals on a loan basis are much more realistic. We’re definitely prepared and have some ideas. We’ll have to see that it is worthwhile for us in sporting and economic terms. We also have players that haven’t played much so far and that is also something we need to bear in mind.

… a possible player profile: We must bear in mind that the winter break is extremely short this time. We don’t have a training camp we could use to integrate new signings. We’d also need players who need a short start-up phase and are familiar with the Bundesliga. We’ll see which opportunities come up for us.

… a conclusion on the first half of the season: Generally, there’s always room for improvement. But right now, I would like to avoid a preliminary conclusion. We have another three points to play for this Saturday. After that. We can talk about a conclusion on the first half of this campaign. But we can clearly say that 2021 was a very good year for VfL overall.