FC St. Pauli

...the injury situation: "Connor Metcalfe missed one training session. Dapo Afolayan is training very well, he's shaken off the knocks and is back to full fitness. We'll discuss who'll play at the weekend on the coaching team, taking into account the impressions from the remaining training sessions. It'll come down to my gut feeling again in the end and we'll obviously consider what's a good fit for Düsseldorf as well. Jackson Irvine didn't train for two days and has started light jogging, but I'm optimistic he'll be back on the training ground today."

... the mood in the team: "What's important for me is the intensity in training and the team community. The atmosphere is crucial. Sometimes the atmosphere in training isn't so good because people criticise each other and speak their minds. That's exactly what's important to me because you don't have success simply because the mood is good. We need this battle for places, it's part of the whole. The working atmosphere in the squad and the club as a whole is very special. It's a real pleasure to work here. Everyone wants to improve, not just the players but the members of my staff as well."

... the development of Elias Saad: "I'm very pleased with him, but I also know he's a very young player. There'll be dips as well and how young players respond when things don't go so well is crucial. If he keeps at it and keeps working, then that will be decisive. He wants to learn and improve and he's a good listener. I know he's capable of more and he also needs to improve his defensive work."

...opponents Fortuna Düsseldorf: "I compare their situation to ours a bit. Their backbone, starting from Kastenmeier, who's an outstanding goalkeeper, has stayed together. Add two intelligent defensive midfielders in Sobottka and Tanaka and they have an incredible amount of experience, including the captain, Hoffmann, who's another very experienced player. And this backbone has stayed together. They've had one or two departures as well, but as we saw in the opening game against Hertha, they have great maturity and know exactly what they have to do to win games. They've been working with coach Daniel Thioune for a while now and know exactly what he wants from them. They're a streetwise team, simple as that. It's going to be a big challenge for us here at the Millerntor, but we aim to take it on and do our utmost to win."

...the key against Fortuna: "It'll be important to have good balance in our play. That's what made us so strong in the second half of last season. We have to keep our composure, stick to our game plan and play football from a clear structure. I wasn't happy with the intensity of our play against Kaiserslautern, for example. The same goes for our workrate, I've told the players that we didn't put in enough sprints and we need to up our game in that respect."

Photos: FC St. Pauli