Hoeneß got straight to the point at Friday’s pre-match press conference: “More determination”, better defending as a team and “higher intensity”. Following the disappointing 5-1 defeat against Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday evening, VfB have quickly turned their attention to the Bundesliga match away to Werder Bremen on Saturday afternoon (30 November, 15:30 CET). Just one point separates the two teams in the table – not the only reason why this is an important game during an important period.
“In the Bundesliga, we started this final block of the year very well with the game against Bochum [2-0], which overall was convincing,” said Hoeneß. “Now it’s a case of continuing that and getting another good result on Saturday.” The VfB boss is pleased with how self-critically the team have responded to the display in Belgrade. Everyone involved was annoyed, he revealed, and it wasn’t something his players were able to “shake off quickly”. In summary: “The whole thing has released a new energy to really want to do better.”
Now it’s about channelling that against Werder. “Bremen are doing well and have already collected a fair amount of points,” said Hoeneß, adding: “They’ve produced some very good performances. I think their patterns of play have become even clearer. Congratulations to Ole #Werner on his third anniversary. Their continuity is clear to see.”
Positive news on Jamie Leweling and Luca Raimund
There were two positive updates on the injury front. Jamie Leweling and Luca Raimund are stepping up their individual training work following thigh issues and are close to returning to partial team training. However, Ameen Al-Dakhil and Justin Diehl (both ill) are unlikely to travel north. El Bilal, Deniz Undav and Dan-Axel Zagadou will definitely be absent again.