JANSSEN CALLS FOR FOCUS IN REMAINING 17 GAMES
Tuesday, 17. January 2017, 19:21 Uhr
Drama, heart-stopping finale, happy end. With four games left to play in the 1998/99 season, hardly anyone believed Eintracht Frankfurt could avoid relegation. Three wins later, culminating in Jan-Aage Fjörthoft's all-important fifth goal in the 89th minute of a 5-1 home defeat of Kaiserslautern, proved the critics wrong. St. Pauli assistant coach Olaf Janssen played a key role in the great escape, scoring a vital winner in a 3-2 win at Schalke on the penultimate day.
"I can tell the players about it, of course," said Janssen at the Sotogrande training camp. "If we'd given up, it would never have been possible. We now need to get things right mentally." The 50-year-old joined the coaching staff in the week before the 1-0 defeat at Würzburg and has been working meticulously on solutions to the current on-field situation ever since.
The harmonious relationship with head coach Ewald Lienen was not only a key reason behind his decision to move to Hamburg, it was a prerequisite. In training Janssen takes on some of the tasks previously done by Lienen, allowing the latter to concentrate more on what's happening on the pitch. "The more Ewald can restrict himself to the role of observer, the more he takes the sessions," said Janssen. "The fact we're on the same wavelength was the reason I decided to come to Hamburg. The initial conversation with Ewald took place at his house and carried on well into the night – we had the same ideas on what needed to change."
In Sotogrande, where the temperature is a pleasant 13 degrees, the Boys in Brown have been honing their confidence for the second half of the season, working on the fine details in the various training sessions and warm-up matches to ensure they achieve the goal of avoiding the drop. Details such as more possession, compact and aggressive defending, and exploiting their strengths in the air from set pieces, for example. "We've done an in-depth analysis and now it's all about putting the changes into practice," said Janssen. "The Osnabrück game really helped us to recognise what still needs to be done, so it came just at the right time."
Team-building measures have been a constant feature of the work in Spain. "We need to go into each of the remaining 17 games with a clear head," said Janssen. "Our preparations for the first game against Stuttgart are putting us on the right track. When everything comes together, football is a fun thing." And if this endeavour prevails, Janssen will be able to celebrate avoiding relegation once again, 18 years later, on the final day at VfL Bochum. Seventeen steps need to be taken.
Photo: Witters
