Struber: “Fine-tune a few things in our setup”

1. FC Köln welcome SSV Ulm to the RheinEnergieSTADION on Saturday, 5th October at 13:00 CEST. FC head coach, Gerhard Struber and Head of Football, Thomas Kessler spoke to the gathered media ahead of the Matchday 8 clash.

Gerhard Struber spoke about…

…the fitness situation: “Dejan Ljubicic is still absent, he’s got his operation behind him and will return during the international break. Mark Uth has been able to join in with parts of team training, we still want to be careful with him, though. Florian Kainz is back and will be an important factor at the weekend.”

…the opposition, Ulm: “Ulm are very robust and physical. We have respect for Ulm and know what they can do. We want to keep our focus on us and want to concentrate on what we want to do on the pitch.”

…the mood this week after the 4:4 draw against KSC: “The team are very critical of the situation. They know what didn’t work on Sunday. We aren’t making things better than they are. The 4:4 felt like a defeat because we have a high level that we want to maintain and expectations as well. But we are looking forward and want to use the next opportunity to turn things around with a good performance.”

…his expectations for the team: “I am confident because I know what quality the lads have. We want to play balanced, attractive and dominant attacking football but, at the same time, stay defensively stable. It’s a developmental process. We have to reward ourselves for our efforts. We have to be more clever and stay true to our principles. Part of that is giving the young players time.”

…possibly switching up the defensive: “We thought about things a lot and obviously we want to be more defensively stable. We need to fine-tune a few things in our setup. Max Finkgräfe is variable and I can’t rule anything out.”

Thomas Kessler spoke about…

…the process, that the team is currently going through: “For me, it would be okay if we won a game 1:0. The lads are doing well going forward but against KSC, we made too many bad decisions at the back. Against the ball, it was too little. We have to do the basics seriously. Every metre that we don’t make could be decisive. We can’t do that again.”