FC St. Pauli

Luca Zander on...

...the friendly at SC Freiburg: "Freiburg played well and deserved to win, simple as that. You could see they had an abundance of quality on the pitch. Freiburg's left side is not the worst, that's for sure, and Vincenzo Grifo didn't have his worst day either. We still have some way to go, as you saw. At some point, we aim to be in a position where we look better against teams like that, but it also has to be said that the team we put out is not one we would usually field."

...the weekend off training: "Too much football isn't good. The weekend was there for us to do something with family and friends. It does us good and we have a whole week to prepare for Heidenheim.

...his recent form: "I honestly think I'm in one of my best phases since I arrived here. As always, the most important thing is that I'm really fit. Obviously, I hope it can carry on like this and I stay fit. Playing with this team is just so much fun. That's another important factor. Everyone who plays has to enjoy putting our ideas into practice on the pitch. That's how it is at the moment and that's how it should stay."

...the competition within the team: "It's clear we need everyone. We've already lost one or two players to injury this season. We've seen that everyone who's come into the team knows what he has to do and has the ability to play."

Right-back Luca Zander, like everyone else, has impressed of late.

...our style of play: "We need ideas for when we have the ball so people can see what we're trying to do and understand that we want to develop a way of playing. A plan also has to be in evidence when we don't have the ball. Everyone has to know what to do and whose job it is to press which player and close down which space. If we do that, we can definitely be awkward opponents."

...the game in Heidenheim: "No one here is underestimating Heidenheim in any way. We know Heidenheim and we know it's an extremely tough place to go. They're very strong defensively and a robust team. If you relax for just a second, it's very difficult to get anything there. Both teams have shown they're capable of playing good football this season and I hope we'll play the better football on Saturday. We're all looking forward to the game."

... the growing praise from other coaches of late: "On the one hand, it's nice we've earned some kind of respect and other coaches are seeing that we're a team who are not so easy to play against. We aim to keep it up. We want to keep playing our own game, keep being awkward and keep making things as hard as possible for every team we play. No one's jumping and dancing around in the dressing room at the moment just because we're top of the league. We all know that's how it is for now, and we've worked hard for it, but if we let up even a little bit, we'll go back down again very quickly."

Photos: Witters