FC St. Pauli

Alexander Blessin on…

...the injury situation: "The forthcoming international break works in our favour, especially as far as Morgan Guilavogui is concerned. The plan is for him to be available again after that. I'm upbeat because he isn't feeling any more pain. Connor Metcalfe and Robert Wagner are back in full training, so there's no reason not to include them in the squad or use them. We almost have a surplus of central midfield players, and so I'm spoilt for choice. Connor and Robert give us extra quality. The friendly against Hertha will be important for them to get some playing time. Karol Mets is making good progress, but we'll give him all the time he needs. We want to ease him back in. I'm delighted he's back running at pace."

...our style of play and the system: "We want a certain flexibility. The first half against Mainz is a prime example. Our play was very varied that day, with a back three or a back four in the build-up and sometimes one No6 and sometimes two. That makes us harder to predict. Knowing when to play the ball into which space still isn't second nature, though. We want to make things tough for Hoffenheim, but it always comes down to how well we recognise certain situations and respond to them. Whether we can hurt them the way we want to will also depend on that."

...opponents Hoffenheim: "Pellegrino Matarazzo was still in charge in the reverse fixture. He had a different philosophy compared with Christian Ilzer, who we know from Sturm Graz with lots of different elements in the way they press and counterpress, for example. They struggled to find a structure in the beginning but appear to have found their feet now. They look very stable now and have picked up some points. They've almost played their way out of trouble with some impressive performances but we're aiming to put them back there. We'll peg them back if we beat them and that's our aim and mission."

...Hoffenheim's Leo Østigård, who played under him at Genoa CFC: "He's a whole-hearted player. He put in lots of good tackles and played an important part in steadying the ship in the beginning. I got on very well with him. We had lots of open and constructive conversations. I hold him in high regard as a player and as a person."

...the significance of the game and the attendant pressure: "It'll be about giving each other the feeling that we're there for each other. Pulling together helps you negotiate phases like these. The lads talk a lot, which is extremely important. They have lots of respect for each other. We have to make clear how important the game is. We know exactly what's at stake. We've performed well in recent weeks and now we want to get our reward by adding some points. It's a big challenge but we're ready for it. The Wolfsburg game was the first step along the way."

…evening kick-offs at the Millerntor: "They're awesome! We're all looking forward to it and want to soak up the atmosphere. It's a shame the Dom funfair doesn't start for another week, though we don't need it to win matches. We can do that without the fair."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/DFL (Getty Images/Oliver Hardt)