FC St. Pauli

Andreas Bornemann…

...the squad situation: "You always hope every player, especially the key members of the team, can take part in much of what you set out to do at training camp. One or two weren't able to do that. The situation with the goalkeepers is easing. It's looking good for Nikola and Sascha is on the up. In the first friendly against Bremer SV the captain and his deputy had to go off early on and then three or four players picked up minor colds. Rather than being outstanding in that respect, things were good to very good. We did make some progress over the ten days, though. We're only two weeks into pre-season and so still have some way to go. We're hoping players will gradually return to training. We still have some sessions left to work on our patterns of play and practice the adjustments."

...head coach Alexander Blessin: "I'm very glad we found him. He knows the challenge brought by a higher league. He's taken something on that was working very well as far as the interaction between team and coach is concerned. He knows he can't simply let the team carry on playing as before. He has to work really hard to convince the players and win them over to his philosophy. Alex does that exceptionally well. The key will be continuing to build the belief in our strengths and the philosophy with which we want to approach things rather than losing it when there are minor setbacks."

...the possibility of signing attacking player Morgan Guilavogui: "He has the right profile and is a great player. A number of things will have to come together, including convincing the player that this could be the right step for him. Added to that is perhaps the circumstance that Lens are no longer in Europe and the squad is too deep in one or two positions. Our chance of getting a foot in the door will increase if all these things come together. We hope we can get the door open a bit more or even wide open. We'll see over the next few days."

...the latest developments in squad and tactical terms: "We'll need the next few weeks. It'll be important to get players like Eric Smith, Hauke Wahl and Manolis Saliakas back. The full-back position will take on a different role and importance if we don't have two players for it as was the case last season. It's about coordinating the movement of the entire backline. The players are very open and see the need to adjust and change certain things. Discussing things in a meeting room is one thing, putting them into practice on the pitch another. It's important that the players come back and work on things together. Then it's about fine-tuning and automatisms. Is it the full-back who presses or the number eight? If they aren't on the same page, then space opens up that teams in the Bundesliga know how to exploit much better than those in the second division."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters