FRIENDLY AGAINST ODENSE - JANSSEN DEMANDS GREATER GOAL THREAT
Thursday, 09. November 2017, 18:48 Uhr
Olaf Janßen's side complete a busy week of training by entertaining Odense BK in a friendly on Friday evening (kick-off: 1900 CET). After a winless run of four games in the league, the Boys in Brown will want to secure a confidence-boosting victory over the Danish first division outfit.
"The game is a great opportunity for me to see all the players under competitive conditions," said head coach Olaf Janßen in the run-up. The visit of Odense offers those players who have seen little or no action recently a chance to stake a claim for a place in the first team. On the back of four league games without a win (three draws, one defeat), Janßen wants to see a reaction from his side: "We aren't going to wallow in self-pity; we're going to show heart and continue where we left off last time out in footballing terms."
There is still work to be done in terms of goal threat, however. The Boys in Brown have scored just 12 goals in 13 league outings so far. "We want to register more attempts and score goals," said Janßen, who augmented some high-intensity training sessions this week with several video analysis exercises demonstrating how to mount a greater attacking threat. After seeing his side concede a string of goals from set pieces recently, Janßen also intends to place the focus on defending free-kicks and corners against Odense. "Those goals have cost us a lot of points, which is obviously very annoying," he said.
Scoring goals will be anything but easy on Friday, however, as Odense travel to the Millerntor with the second-meanest defence in Denmark. The seventh-placed side, whom Janßen described as a "good footballing team", have conceded just 14 goals in 15 matches, a tally bettered only by league leaders Brøndby IF (12).
In spite of the recent injury misery, Janßen has 22 players and thus two whole teams at his disposal. "Cenk Sahin will be involved," said the 51-year-old, delighted to see the attacking midfielder return to training after recovering from a torn knee ligament. The game comes around just a little too early for Richard Neudecker, however. "It's looking very good and he'll be able to resume full training next week," said Janßen, who will also be without two international players in Mats Møller Dæhli (Norway) and Svend Brodersen (Germany Under-21s) plus long-term absentees Philipp Ziereis, Marc Hornschuh and Ryo Miyaichi.
Photo: Witters
