…INJURY REPORT

Luca Kilian had a successful operation yesterday. We will miss him, also as a guy. We hope that he can begin his rehabilitation quickly. He will support us off the pitch in the fight to stay in the league. Justin Diehl, Florian Dietz and Mark Uth are in advanced training, Davie Selke is back.

…BOCHUM

VfL Bochum plays a fast game at the top. They have a lot of speed on the wings and are always looking for deep balls to Philipp Hofmann. They live from the collective, but also have important individual players. Kevin Stöger is one of them, we have to involve him in duels and condense the spaces so that he can't play his game. We have the chance to take a big step in the right direction. It will be a duel of equals. But of course, we want to win.

...ABOUT MATCH

We checked off the last game analytically. We got one point in Augsburg, even though we would have liked to have three. But we got it against a good opponent.The energy of the team is crucial. In game situations it also depends on the tolerance for frustration when things don't go well and on little things. We have to take the fans with us again on Saturday and do everything we can to ensure that the little details of this game are crucial for us. It is an option for Eric Martel to return to the starting line-up. In Augsburg we tried a different variant - also because he was injured. Now he’s back to 100 percent.

…TEAM’S MOOD

It was bad because it felt like a defeat for everyone. We know that we played a good game up to a certain point, but it's not enough. Of course we were all disappointed, but we worked through the game and drew conclusions from it. We're not questioning the big picture now, it's about modifying and thinking about the right solutions. We started the short week with a good session on Wednesday. Today the unit didn't work as we had imagined. You have to think about what the reasons are and draw the right conclusions from them. I'm not really worried, but I'm worried. That's my job and that's what I do after a good session. Sometimes it's good when there's a thunderstorm because it clears up again afterwards.

…FC KÖLN

We expect a team that of course still believes in its chance. At home, in their stadium, with their fans, the house will burn. A team is coming to us that is looking for playful solutions and now has all the players available. For us, it's not about which individual player is on the pitch, but rather what structure the opponent has. Accordingly, we are looking for ways in which we can get their strengths under control and at the same time play to our strengths. The goal is clear: We are going to Cologne to win the game.

...BOCHUM’S AWAY PERFORMANCE

Our fans push us forward at home games. They do that at away games too, but here at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion it's something special. The opponents then come with a lot of respect. If you are not so successful away from home, the opponent might go into the game with a different feeling. Regardless, we have to go to Cologne with a broad chest. For us it should never matter whether we play at home or away.

...ADDITIONAL NOTES

• The long-term injured Michael Esser, Moritz-Broni Kwarteng as well as Niclas Thiede and Mohammed Tolba are still missing. Goncalo Paciencia is also out, but Tim Oermann is back. So things have relaxed a bit.

• Tim Oermann makes a very good physical impression. We threw him in relatively quickly last time and he got injured again, albeit in a different spot. It's always a fine line whether we take the risk. We also have good alternatives with Felix Passlack and Cristian Gamboa.