KAUCZINSKI CALLS FOR 100 PER CENT AT MSV
Sunday, 21. October 2018, 12:58 Uhr
Next up for the Boys in Brown is an away game at MSV Duisburg on Monday evening (kick-off: 2030 CET). After taking ten points out of 12 in their last four matches, Markus Kauczinski's side are hoping to get another result in the Ruhr. The St. Pauli boss expects the game to be a "tough piece of work" and said his team would have to give their all if they wanted to continue their positive run.
Before the final training session ahead of the game at Duisburg and the coach trip south on Sunday afternoon, head coach Markus Kauczinski took questions from the Hamburger media. As usual, the 48-year-old began with a look at the injury situation: "Waldemar Sobota, Marc Hornschuh, Yiyoung Park and Finn Ole Becker are ruled out, and the game comes around too early for Jan-Philipp Kalla and Luca Zander, who've been feeling a bit of pain due to the workload in training, to make the squad." All that translates into an unchanged 18-man squad compared with the 3-1 home win over Sandhausen last time out.
The players had made very good use of the international break, a satisfied Kauczinski continued: "The free weekend has done the lads good. They've trained well and been focused in their work. We've had to as well because we have a tough job ahead of us against MSV."
Kauczinski is mulling over a tactical change to his starting lineup and said he may opt for a twin strike force: "I'm thinking about it and we've practised it in training. Henk Veerman and Sami Allagui harmonise well but our defensive organisation plays a role, too, and that's different when you play with two strikers."
Under new boss Torsten Lieberknecht, Duisburg showed a marked improvement going into the international break, winning 2-1 at league leaders Cologne to celebrate their first victory of the season after a run of eight winless games. Asked how MSV's approach had changed under the former Braunschweig coach, Kauczinski said: "Though you could see a difference, it was nothing major. There were small things, such as the way they pressed and defended."
Generally, Kauczinski is expecting to face a Duisburg team who showed last season that they were a good side with lots of good footballers in their ranks: "They'll be fired up for their first home appearance under their new coach and will push us to the limit. We'll need to give our all, if we want to get something there. I'm looking forward to a hard-fought game. We want to keep our positive run going and consolidate our position at the top end of the table."
Photo: Witters
