“The hardest-working team in the league” | OneFootball

Eagles boss Dino Toppmöller says he expects an “intensive game” against St. Pauli on Saturday and issues an update on Tuta and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya.

Head coach Dino Toppmöller on…

…personnel: “Tuta has rejoined training and could play some part on Saturday. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya trained with a mask today, so we'll have to see if that makes sense. Apart from Aurèle Amenda, everyone else is fit.”

…opponents FC St. Pauli: “XY. They’re the hardest-working team in the league and have good ideas with the ball. I’m expecting St. Pauli to press us high from the get-go. They press high very well and get a lot of shots off after winning the ball high up the pitch. I don’t think they’ll sit back – that wouldn’t suit the DNA of the club or the coach. Alexander Blessin is very meticulous and sets great store by defending high up the pitch.”

…Eintracht’s approach: “Even though we didn’t get the results we wanted against Mainz and Augsburg recently, we still had enough chances in those games. We showed we’re capable of breaking down defences of deep-lying opponents. The next step is about being precise in our patterns of play, protecting ourselves from counter-attacks and being sharp in our counter-press.”

…the Eagles’ focus after the winter break: “We obviously try and cover a bit of everything, but in the few sessions we’ve had in our first week back we’ve been concentrating more on intensity, defending and set plays. The focus was on defending in a deeper block and the transition into our press, because we can’t go chasing every ball.”

…Omar Marmoush: “Omar is our player and a hugely important one. His development has been outstanding. There has been no contact between the clubs. As long as that’s the case, we don’t need to speak about it. He’s impressing in training and will start on Saturday.”