Seoane ahead of #B04BMG: “It’ll have to be a top performance”

Head coach Gerardo Seoane answered media representatives’ questions ahead of the Foals’ away game against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday evening (18:30 CET). Here are his most important quotes.

Head coach Gerardo Seoane on…

…the squad situation: Jonas Omlin and Max Wöber are still doing individual recovery training. Rocco Reitz, Alassane Plea and Chris Kramer also trained individually today. They’re still a doubt for Saturday. Manu Koné, Marvin Friedrich and Jordan took part in more of the team training today. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes with their muscle problems.

…the two upcoming away games in Leverkusen and at FC Bayern: We’ve got two difficult games ahead of us, but we’re facing up to these challenges and will try to counter them. We’ll need a lot of things to go in our favour on the day, but it’s possible to win points against these opponents. It’ll have to be a top performance from our side and a slightly less good one from the opposing side.

…his time at Leverkusen: Of course I’m looking forward to returning to Leverkusen. I had a great time there and I’m thankful that the club gave me that chance. That was a long time ago now though. The focus is on the sporting task ahead of us there at the weekend.

…the opponents: No opponent has managed to beat Borussia so far – and there are good reasons for that. Leverkusen play very consistent football across every phase of the game. They have great individuals, but equally they are an outstanding unit who have been at their best so far this Bundesliga season. They are always very hungry and believe in themselves until the final whistle.

…the game plan for the encounter at the BayArena: It’ll be very difficult to threaten Leverkusen over the whole 90 minutes. I’m guessing that they’ll threaten us instead. We’ll have to close the spaces and defend with discipline. We’ll also have to counter quickly after winning the ball and make good decisions.

…the possible absence of Rocco Reitz: Rocco Reitz gives us battling ability and aggression in central midfield. If he’s unavailable on Saturday, we’ve got other options. Our task is to make the right decisions with the options we have.

…Joe Scally’s current state of mind: Joe’s put in consistent performances in various different positions so far this season. As a young player, he has the right to have a poor game sometimes. We’ve tried to make sure that he’ll train with confidence again this week. In sport, it’s important to keep looking forward after a defeat or poor performance. We also try to add some factual things to work on, so a player can improve in both a footballing and psychological sense. We have more options on both flanks now since Stevie Lainer’s return. That also gives us the chance for example to maybe give a break to Joe Scally, who’s hardly missed a minute.

…Ko Itakura’s condition: Ko Itakura is okay again. He was only ill for a day or two. We were also told that he wouldn’t be able to play in the last group game of the Asian Cup because of that. It shouldn’t be anything serious though.