LIENEN CALLS FOR COMMON WORK ETHIC AGAINST SANDHAUSEN
Sunday, 02. April 2017, 19:32 Uhr
The games are coming thick and fast at the moment. Less than 48 hours after the match at Erzgebirge Aue, Ewald Lienen was back in front of the Hamburg media looking ahead to Tuesday's visit of SV Sandhausen (kick-off: 1730 CET). Owing to the tight training schedule, striker Aziz Bouhaddouz joined his coach on the podium to take questions on his former club.
"I won't have people saying our performance at Aue was abysmal – that's an insult," the St. Pauli boss said before adding: "We all work together, we're a team! No one plays badly on purpose and I always give my players a chance to correct their performance after half-time. We know it wasn't a good performance at Aue and we've drawn a line under it. We know we can play better."
Turning his attention to the home game against Sandhausen, the next examination in a busy schedule, Lienen said: "With four fit players to choose from in central defence we have a bit of a luxury problem, but in midfield another option or two wouldn't be bad. Players such as Johannes Flum, Ryo Miyaichi and Cenk Sahin haven't been able to train with the rest of the squad for a while. Flumi has started doing running work again, while Ryo and Cenk were able to take part in game replication training. As far as Cenk is concerned, it's getting better with every day but we can't assume he'll be able to last 90 minutes. Cenk feels fit, though, and if it stays that way, he'll be in the squad. Robin Himmelmann's not experiencing any problems any more, but we'll have to wait and see with Bernd Nehrig, who's having intensive treatment on a tight thigh muscle."
Aziz Bouhaddouz returns to the squad for after serving a one-match ban against Aue. "I'm happy about every player who's available," said Lienen. "He's obviously going to be of help to us but he can't win matches on his own. We all have to work hard, defend well and create chances."
Lienen went on to pay tribute to the visitors, saying: "Sandhausen picked up a lot of points early on. They're a well-oiled, physically robust side with three or four big players and they can also pose a threat from set pieces. They've had to cope with the loss of several attacking players recently, however, and that's the main reason they've struggled a bit lately. If the goals stop coming, you don't get the right results."
Bouhaddouz knows all about Sandhausen, of course, having played for them from 2014 to 2016. "I watch their games on TV whenever I get a chance," he said. "Sandhausen are a very compact side and if you let them play, they do it well. You have to force them into mistakes by putting them under pressure. We'll show a different side to ourselves on Tuesday and want to get a result at the Millerntor."
Photos: Witters
