“A hard time”

The Green-and-Whites are back in Bundesliga action on Friday 10 February (20:30 CET), when they travel to FC Schalke 04. Addressing the media ahead of the match, VfL boss Niko Kovac shared his thoughts on… … recent results: “We’re obviously not happy with our last few results, but there are games that can be tight and go the other way. If I look at performances alone, I’m not scared at all. On the contrary, I’m feeling very positive.”

… personnel matters: “It’s always best when a coach has a full squad to choose from. I’d like to pay a huge compliment to the medical and physio department at this point. Everyone’s available and all our players are fit.”

… opponents Schalke 04: “I think you can clearly see what Thomas Reis wants. His teams play a very aggressive and physical brand of football that isn’t easy to play against. It’s one v one all over the pitch. Their results don’t reflect their performances. Schalke shouldn’t have lost in Frankfurt, for instance, and they’ve also had two 0-0 draws. You can tell the players believe in their style of play. Schalke are all about fighting spirit. We need to face that head-on in order to be able to showcase our qualities on the ball.”

… his expectations: “We head to Gelsenkirchen knowing we’ll be given a hard time. Schalke aren’t done yet. There are still plenty of games to go. We have to prove ourselves again in front of 60,000 fans who are really going to give their all. If we do well and reach the same intensity levels as we did against Bayern Munich, the mood can change very quickly. We have to try and hold our own from the outset and take our early chances, just like we did in our first couple of games this year.”