FC St. Pauli

"The casualty list is much shorter now, to the extent that only the three long-term absentees are still out," said Janßen. Ryo Miyaichi returns to Hamburg on Monday to continue his rehab, and there are also new developments regarding Philipp Ziereis and Marc Hornschuh. "Ziere had surgery on his tonsils and the nasal septum last week. The doctors confirmed that this was exactly the right step to counter the chronic inflammation. He'll be able to start his rehab soon but we still have to be patient as far as Marc is concerned. He needs more time before he can step up the workload. It's getting better, but we're reluctant to make any detailed predictions."

Everyone else is on board and match-fit. In Richard Neudecker, Brian Koglin, Jan-Marc Schneider, Svend Brodersen and Joel Keller, five players will be given run-outs for the Under-23s  against Eintracht Braunschweig II this Friday evening. "I'm really pleased that Richy will be able to get some match practice," said Janßen.

"The international break did us good squadwise," continued Janßen. Aziz Bouhaddouz and Cenk Sahin are fit again but not right back to 100 per cent, however, and neither are Maurice Litka, who was ill during the week, and Mats Møller Dæhli, who was away with Norway. "They do give us options, though, and can be of help to us, but against this opposition we'll need to go flat out, and the lads definitely can't do that for 90 minutes just yet. That means I'll have to consider what substitutions I can make and when. These are the kind of considerations you'd much rather have as a coach compared with recent weeks when the squad just about selected itself."

Regensburg come to the Millerntor having taken six points from their last two games against Fürth and Kaiserslautern. "They aren't your usual promoted side because they do anything but pack the defence," said Janßen. "In Achim Beierlorzer they deliberately went for a coach who worked in Leipzig for many years. You can tell that by the way they play. They have a decent gegenpressing game and try to hit vertical balls straightaway. There'll be no knocking the ball around the back on Sunday. It'll be a high-risk game with lots of quick switches of the play and we'll need to find the right strategy to counter that".

One option could be to answer Regensburg's high pressing game in kind. "The decisive factor is creating chances. We're making very good progress in that respect but now it's about converting them, of course. We've trying to attack the opposition earlier to put them under pressure and force them to give the ball away." Asked about Regensburg's combative style of play, which has brought them a lot of bookings, Janßen replied: "I don't feel we have a problem or aren't getting into the tackles. Yellow cards aren't a positive sign. They're a sign you can no longer cope without resorting to illegal means. We don't need that in our play."

Photo: Witters