LIENEN: "HAVE TO PULL TOGETHER"
Friday, 10. February 2017, 18:19 Uhr
After the "vital" win at Braunschweig last time out, another team with promotion aspirations await the Boys in Brown this Sunday (kick-off: 1330 CET) in Dynamo Dresden. Nineteen games in, the visitors are having an impressive season on their return from the third tier. They sit in fifth place and have set their sights on back-to-back promotions. No easy task, then, as Ewald Lienen is aware.
"For a promoted side, Dresden are doing a great job," the head coach said in recognition of their efforts this term. "They're a good, technically gifted footballing side who go all out to win away from home." A glance at the table backs this up. "Dresden's away record is almost better than their home record – even though they're a powerhouse on their own turf. They've already won four of their nine games on the road and drawn twice," added Lienen, who has great respect for his opposite number, Uwe Neuhaus. "Uwe has put his stamp on team. And in Stefan Kutschke, Marvin Stefaniak, Andreas Lamberts, Marco Hauptmann and Akai Gogia, Dresden have fantastic attacking options."
Two days before the game the St. Pauli boss is in confident mood, however. "We're in the pleasing situation that a string of players are back," he said. In Ryo Miyaichi, Daniel Buballa, Sören Gonther, Philipp Ziereis, Christopher Avevor and Aziz Bouhaddouz, as many as six returned to the training ground at the beginning of the week. Philipp Ziereis is not likely to feature on Sunday, however. Though the 23-year-old defender has trained all week, it has not been with the same physical intensity, according to Lienen. It is a similar situation with Miyaichi, who despite making good progress is not in the running for selection.
Recent performances are another reason why Lienen is in a positive frame of mind: "There's a clear trend that the team is making progress. We have to ensure we continue working like this. Our focus is on maintaining our second-division status. We can only do that if we're prepared to fight to the end, however," said Lienen, who is not a fan of certain projections: "They're no use to us. We had 17 finals two weeks ago, now it's 15. We have to take these chances. One of our most important tasks is to get results at home. We'll give it all we've got."
The head coach is counting on his entire squad in this endeavour, something that also applies on Sunday. "What the 14 players achieved at Braunschweig can be achieved by the others, too," he said "The substitutions we made resulted in no loss of quality on the pitch. That wasn't always the case in the first half of the season."
Asked about possible changes to the starting lineup, Lienen made clear that the team and the club were the only things that mattered, not the sensitivities of individual players. "Everyone understands that's it not about individuals here," he stressed. The same goes for the goalkeeper position, where Lienen spoke of a luxury problem: "We have two goalkeepers who are dealing with the situation in a first-class manner. We can only achieve our aims if we pull together."
Photos: Witters
