FC St. Pauli

Head coach Olaf Janßen finally has more options when it comes to selecting his squad for Saturday's home game against Ingolstadt. "The injury situation is developing very positively," he said. "We have more options in Luca Zander, Aziz Bouhaddouz, Yiyoung Park and Kyoungrok Choi, who are all fit again and available for selection." He also gave the all-clear as far as the players who picked up knocks at Nürnberg on Monday are concerned: "Mats Møller Dæhli, Jeremy Dudziak, Daniel Buballa and Robin Himmelmann are all fit. Lasse Sobiech is making good progressm as well. They're not at 100% yet, of course, but they all offer options that we will make use of."

The game comes around too early for Christopher Buchtmann, however. "He's making very good progress after spraining his ankle and could be ready in about two weeks," said Janßen. And he had more good news. "Philipp Ziereis is also coming on well and will probably be able to resume training after next week."

Janßen therefore goes into the game in reasonably confident mood against an Ingolstadt side who have struggled after relegation from the Bundesliga: "The lads give me a good feeling. I said that before the Nürnberg game as well and they proved that in impressive style. The willingness to run and the energy they brought to the pitch is definitely something we will need in the next four games." Nürnberg changed their system ahead of Monday's game and this is a possibility Janßen cannot rule out against Ingolstadt either. "They've operated in a 4-3-3 in the last two games, with just one striker. In Lex, Pledl and Lezcano they have excellent wide players and lots of options. We're prepared for every eventuality and will make sure we give opponents just as much to think about."

In Ingolstadt, then, the Boys in Brown are up against a variable side with quality in abundance whose 15th place in the table in no way reflects what they are capable of. "They haven't performed as well as they might have, that's for sure, but they have the potential to be a top team," acknowledged Janßen. "It's going to be a tough game. Ingolstadt are out to make amends and will give it all they've got. We'll need to fight even harder than we did on Monday and play much better. We'll have some 30,000 fans behind us, though. That's a nice position to start from."

Saturday's game marks the start of an energy-sapping few days but Janßen has come up with a special way to motivate his players: "Today I told the players we were playing the league leaders four times in the next four games. Ingolstadt have the best squad in the division. In our next away game at Kiel we face the league's surprise package, and it doesn't get any easier after that. On Saturday we play the actual league leaders, Fortuna Düsseldorf, and then we go to Braunschweig, who in finishing in the play-off spot last season were the highest-placed of all the current second division sides."
 
Photos: Witters