FC St. Pauli

Loïc Favé on…

...the personnel situation: "Philipp Ziereis felt something in his back while warming up yesterday, but we don't think it's serious. Afeez Aremu also had to pull out of training yesterday. He'll do a fitness test today, so we'll have to wait and see. Jakov Medić resumed full training without a mask yesterday but will wear one today to allow him to make tackles and train as normal. We'll have to see how the mask works for him today and tomorrow, but we expect him to be an option for the weekend. Apart from the long-term absentees, we have a lot of depth and choice, which is a very good sign. We have eleven different goalscorers and the highest goal tally from the bench, which tells you we have good depth and lots of good alternatives in the squad who we will need as the season goes on."

...training without head coach Timo Schultz: "It hasn't been much different than usual. Timo isn't there, of course, but we've had a few video calls with him and a call with the entire backroom team. We looked at how we wanted to approach the week and how we should spread the workload. You can tell there's one less person to do the work, though, and we hope Timo will be back soon, of course. He's feeling better already but he's bored at home and so we had several calls yesterday. We're trying to cover for him as a team until such time as he's back. I think what distinguishes us is that we work well together as a team."

...the resilience of the team: "That's something we've worked on a lot. We've made huge progress as a team. Last season it was a bigger setback when we lost or had spells in games where things didn't go as well as we imagined. There'll still be adversity to overcome, though, as the season wears on."

...Schalke 04: "They experienced a big upheaval in summer, so it always takes time for things to become routine. We noticed the same effect last summer. I'm pretty sure Schalke will step up a gear over the rest of the season. They're a team with lots of power and athleticism. They're very dangerous, especially from set pieces, and in Thomas Ouwejan they have one of the best takers of a set piece in the league. They're very much defined by their defensive stability, which is why they've kept so many clean sheets. When they win possession, they're always a threat on transition.

...the importance of the fans and the prospect of an empty ground: "It's on our minds. We're talking about it. As we've seen already this season, it's clear that playing at home in front of fans has an effect. I'd been in the ground but didn't know what it felt like on the pitch. I have to admit that I underestimated the effect it has. It's even bigger than you think. It helps us when there are fans in the ground but it's something we can't influence, so there's point worrying about it too much. We have to focus on the things we can influence."

Photos: Witters