FC St. Pauli

Timo Schultz on…

...the injury situation: "There's little to no change compared with last week, everyone emerged from the Braunschweig game unscathed. They've all been OK in training this week. Guido Burgstaller is back on the pitch but only doing passing drills with no physical contact. There's no prospect of him playing in the near future. Christopher Avevor underwent successful surgery and came to the training ground yesterday. His foot is still very swollen after the operation. He'll have to wear a special shoe for four to six weeks and so won't be able to ease into his workload until early next year."

...the training week so far: "It's been a week with more straight-talking than usual. Everyone's fired up. In the practice matches you could tell that the Braunschweig game has been gnawing at the lads and they’re determined to show they can do better. I hope we'll see that energy on the pitch on Sunday."

...his clear message to the team after the Braunschweig game: "Ultimately, it's not about me firing off any messages, it's about the lads themselves finding a way to do better than they did against Braunschweig. It hasn't all been bad in our previous games. The process and the way we’ve gone about things has often been good. The only thing missing has been the results. On top of that came a bad performance at Braunschweig. On the one hand, we have to make sure we don't abandon our brand of brave, creative and attacking football. On the other, we have to achieve a better balance in our defending and the effectiveness we need in attack.

...conveying optimism and positivity: "I'm generally a very optimistic person and still see plenty of opportunities for us to improve and get the results accordingly. I don't see the players giving up either. On the contrary, we're all convinced that we're on the right track. Nevertheless, we know the results haven't been good and we’re short of arguments. We need to show more determination and resolve in one or two areas and invest more. We have a problem with negative experiences at the moment. We have to pull much closer together as a team, especially when we encounter resistance. That applies to each one of us, though we also have to defend ourselves and fight back much more as a team. If we can generate more power together in the key moments and be there for each other more, our footballing quality will shine through.

...Erzgebirge Aue: "They're a stable and very, very experienced second division team with Martin Männel, Florian Ballas and Sören Gonther at the back. In Pascal Testroet and Florian Krüger, they have two dangerous strikers up front. Unlike us, Aue have been very effective. We know what we're up against. We'll go into the game with courage and anger but without deviating from our path. The key thing for me is having eleven players on the pitch who are eager to attack together, defend together and go into the game convinced they’ll perform well and take all three points. We have a chance to turn this thing around in the next ten days, and we have to start against Aue."

Photos: Witters