“We have to pull ourselves together”

No current Hertha player has more Bundesliga experience than captain Marvin Plattenhardt, who has played 269 times in Germany’s top flight. The 31-year-old’s debut came for 1. FC Nürnberg on 5th December 2010 and he has been through a lot since then. As a result of this experience, our number 21 is remaining calm despite our tricky situation. “We can’t allow ourselves to be fazed. A lot of us have been in the game long enough to know how to deal with a situation like this,” explained the man with seven Germany caps to his name. “The majority of our bad results have been away from home in recent weeks. We will keep working hard and try to put the things we’re speaking about it into practice. We have to pull ourselves together over the coming weeks and months,” demanded ‘Platte’. We have summarised the most important quotes from his interview after training on Wednesday. He spoke about…

…the mood within the team:

The mood is good, even though we were disappointed after the Hoffenheim game and didn’t really enjoy it. The majority of our bad results have been away from home in recent weeks. We will keep working hard and try to put the things we’re speaking about it into practice. It’s important that we keep thinking positively and play as a team. We have to prepare ourselves as best we can for the upcoming opponents. We are desperate to get something from the game in Freiburg, so we’ll train hard until then and speak about lots of things, in individual chats too. We have to stick together as a group once the lads are back from international duty.

…the fight for survival:

I think everybody has acknowledged after the last game at the very latest that we are in a relegation battle. We can only survive by working hard every day. Staying up is the aim for the team and the whole club – we have to do all we can to ensure we do. We’ve picked up a few points at home recently, but not away – that has to change. The longer the bad run goes on, the greater the chance is that we will end it. We’re not allowing ourselves to be fazed. A lot of us have been in the game long enough to know how to deal with a situation like this. We have to pull ourselves together over the coming weeks and months. The coaching team are working hard and bring lots of energy and passion to the table, which is really helpful for us players.

…playing at centre-back:

I’ve played there quite a lot now. It’s obviously not the same as playing as a left-back or a left wing-back, but I don’t find it difficult to switch positions. It simply wasn’t my day against Hoffenheim.

…his roles as captain:

I’m a positive person and I want to continue motivating the lads. My job is to chat to the players, especially the young ones. It’s not easy when you lose, but you have to talk about things. We’ve got some good lads in the squad who try and get the mood back to where it once was.