FC St. Pauli

Alexander Blessin on…

...his squad: "Manolis Saliakas is fit and available to play. He's trained in full this week and responded well. We'll see if he starts on Saturday. Connor Metcalfe and Robert Wagner had some minor problems last week, but both have trained in full again this week. They're being eased back to full intensity and both are responding well, so they may well be available, though we might have to give Connor another week longer than Robert. Eric Smith is fit. He had a slight problem with his patellar tendon yesterday, but he's had good treatment and he resumed full training yesterday, which we're obviously very glad about."

...the run of defeats: "We've come close in lots of games and obviously want to turn things round again. I won't try to put a gloss on things – we've made plenty of mistakes and have talked about it often enough – but the task is to push back, look at what's gone well and stick to those points. There's no point chucking everything in when you hit a bit of opposition. We have to keep calm yet still be open and honest with each other. We know very well that we have to give 100 per cent again at the weekend – and that means for 90 minutes and not just 45 or 50. We've given some stupid goals away where we've been very inactive, and we can no longer afford to be so inactive."

...the opposition: "Wolfsburg have found a good structure and have loads of quality going forward, but they're also much more stable at the back compared with the first half of the season and are winning games as a result. It's hard to score against them. They also have incredible pace, so that's warning enough. We had it well under control in the first game and so we have to start from there. We've come up with another good plan that has a slight variation in it, and I'm confident it can come off."

...our own style of play: "At the start of the season we gave a clear definition of how we want to play, what we want to achieve and how we aim to achieve it. And it's simply by being stable at the back and having intensity off the ball. We also have to hold our nerve when we have a chance to score. When we have good chances, we have to celebrate that fact. At the other end, we have to high-five each other every time we make a defensive tackle. We play well when we don't concede and it gives us a good feeling. The longer the game goes on, the more chances we'll create. We don't intend to stray away from that. It would be wrong to say we're going to attack even more because we want to create even more chances in the hope we'll score more then."

...Eric Smith's position: "It's up in the air. We always have to consider what's best for us at that time. We want a structure, as always, but one that can be changed at any time with lots of rotation. It's then a question of creating situations that keep the opposition busy. We have to do that. Whether Eric plays in the centre of the defence or in front of it, isn't set in stone."

Photos: FC St. Pauli