FC St. Pauli

Alexander Blessin on…

...the injury situation and the loss of Jackson Irvine: “We’ve varied the workload for Philipp Treu and Manolis Saliakas this week, but they trained normally today. Everyone’s available apart from Jackson Irvine. The diagnosis of the club doctors was clear and we had to make a decision. There were two options – conservative or surgery. Jacko’s had the operation and now the focus is on his recovery. He has a clear rehabilitation plan and we’ll see how long it takes. It wouldn’t be appropriate to name a date. We might be able to say more in a month’s time.”

...the run-in: “I have faith in my team. You can tell it’s crunch time. There are only three games left. It’s important not to lose focus now so as to take the final step. For me it’s important to make clear to the lads that they need to be clear in their minds and not veer off to the left or right.”

...Friday night’s game between Heidenheim and Bochum: “I don’t know if I’ll watch it yet. My family are here. When my wife has watched our opponents play, they’ve lost. When we’ve watched together, they’ve won, so we’ll have to see how we play it (he grins). Maybe I’ll put the minute-by-minute updates on. In general, we’ll keep an eye on it but what we do on Saturday is what’s important.”

...opponents Stuttgart: “They had a bit of a sticky patch, but when you look back at the performances, you see the incredible quality they have in the team. They’ve had some bad luck in recent weeks and we’re hoping their minds are already on the cup final. Sebastian Hoeneß will insist that they don’t dish out any presents. It’s also a question of who wants to play. They’ll be determined to get back on track in order to prepare for Berlin and they won’t give the game away. They haven’t done that in any of the last few games. They dominated against Heidenheim and had the better opportunities but no luck in front of goal. Normally they would have won that game.”

...means to unlock a team who dominate the possession: “We have to find the same balance as we have recently. We had some excellent spells of possession against Leverkusen and Bremen. Our positional play was good, our movement was good, and the quality of the first and second touch was good. We’ve come up from the second division and I think we gave a good account of ourselves on the ball in both games. The lads have become more confident in their way of doing things as the season has unfolded and the aim every time is to ensure that’s the case over 90 minutes. Combining everything to do with pressing, gegenpressing and possession requires not only a high degree of running ability but also mental clarity. It’s very fatiguing.”

...the approach to the game: “We want the same as in the last few games. We’ve gone on a run with some good performances and good results. We know the constellation and want to take the final step now. We’ll keep an eye on Friday’s game but we have to do our homework and we’ll get everything ready to put in a good performance and get the points we need. We need to maintain our focus and we’re determined to win the game.”

Photos: Witters