Marco Rose on the squad, Schalke and the unbeaten run
RBL head coach Marco Rose gave a press conference ahead of Bundesliga matchday 17
Our first away match of the new year! Following the 1-1 draw against FC Bayern München, we next face FC Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday, 24th January (kick-off 18:30 CET).
Squad news:
- All players are available except for Péter Gulácsi and Christopher Nkunku, who remain sidelined.
You will find the most up-to-date squad news and injury updates here.
Marco Rose on ...
... his starting XI against Schalke 04:
- "It’s going to come down to fine margins. We’ll try to get Timo a bit more involved and get him closer to being able to play a full 90 minutes. A few of the lads picked up knocks in the first match, but we’ll have a clearer idea of their situation come the final training session.
We’ll also soon be deciding whether to rotate the side a little or whether we’ll stick with most of the players who started against Bayern on Friday."
… Timo Werner:
- "It was a clear decision for the Bayern game: Timo had been out for a long time and had played a good 50 minutes in one of our friendlies. The question for me as head coach now concerns how the others are doing. Emil played brilliantly against Bayern, he gave his all and also did well in our preparations before the second half of the season.
When an injured player returns, as a head coach you look what your squad has done and achieved up until then. Despite this, you could see in the first half against Bayern that we missed Timo’s and Christo’s pace.
He’s now played 25 minutes against Bayern and 50 minutes in a friendly. It might be time for him to come back into the starting line-up. However, we’ll need to see how long he would have in him. We need to have the right feeling. There’s no doubt about it: Timo is an important player for us and will be on Tuesday."
More news:
Marco Rose on ...
… the draw vs. Bayern:
- "I think we played well against Bayern. The first-half performance wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be. We were against Bayern and didn’t concede many chances at all. We simply didn’t do enough in attack, and we’ve been self-critical of that. All in all, it was a pleasing performance from us."
… upcoming opponents Schalke 04:
- "t’s the Bundesliga. Thomas Reis is now the head coach there, and we sat next to each other when we did our coaching badges. I know what we’re going to be coming up against. They play with a much better intensity now and put in a good performance against Frankfurt. Little things like that send out signals. We’re going to have to work hard tomorrow against a team who and going to fight passionately and intensely at every opportunity.
They’re very hard-working, it seems like there’s a good feeling around the club again and that they’re going in the right direction, but despite that they haven’t picked up many points. Every match in the Bundesliga is tough and the atmosphere at their ground will be good as usual. It seems the fans have the feeling like their team is going to give their all in every game. It will be an intense game.
If we’re not on song, we’ll have some problems, but if we bring our ‘A’-game and play with intensity, then we’ll have a chance to show off our on-the-ball quality."
... Tom Krauß:
- "He’s a good lad and a proper Leipzig boy. I played with his father in our youth footballing days. We’re of course keeping an eye on him, it’s our duty to monitor his progress. He worked his way into the team at Nürnberg and quickly became a key player at Schalke and has done well in his side’s relegation fight so far."
If we’re not on song against Schalke, we’ll have some problems.
Marco Rose on ...
… the relationship between head coaches and referees:
- "As a head coach, you face a huge pressure to succeed, just like the referees have to cope with the pressure of remaining as impartial as possible. The 70th minute of the Bayern game was the point in the match for me where I wasn’t happy with one or two of the decisions made.
I think it’s important that we try to solve everything fairly, but of course mistakes can happen sometimes – even referees can make mistakes. However, if clear and obvious errors occur which could be verified through a VAR check, or where the laws of the game aren’t clear, then certain situations can become difficult to understand and also emotional. That has less to do with the refereeing team themselves and more to do with the VAR team for me.
The relationship between referees and coaches should, in my opinion, always remain cooperative."
… on his defenders’ attacking prowess:
- "All players have important tasks – a full-back can also think about getting up the pitch as long as he’s well covered by his teammates. Our centre-backs have also popped up with a few goals from set pieces. It’s a good thing and important that we can pose a goal threat from all positions.
However, I’m also really pleased when our attacker score goals. André is working really hard at the moment – he won the most tackles against Bayern and it would be great if he could be rewarded with a goal sometime soon."
Marco Rose on ...
… the current unbeaten run:
- "An unbeaten run doesn’t get you anything in football. At the end of the last matchday we found ourselves in fifth place. We played well against Bayern, but we want to assess ourselves based off of the next game and our next results.
We’re a very ambitious team, but there’s a difference between the ambitions you can have and can talk about and then actually living up to expectations. I want to be careful that we don’t let the two drift apart from each other. Just because you have big ambitions, that doesn’t mean you should set unrealistic expectations. That can make the relationship with the fans, the team, the club and the media difficult.
After the Bayern game I had the feeling that there were different expectations of us compared to the performance we actually gave on the pitch. We need to make sure that it doesn’t go in the wrong direction. We need to stay positive and self-critical and ensure we maintain a healthy balance between personal performance and expectations. If you need to find an explanation for every defeat and every poor performance, you lose your flow and then the mood can drop. I’m trying to keep that from happening, and our performance against Bayern was too good for that anyway."
