14th place in the table is a nice moment for VfL Bochum 1848, but there is no time to rest on it. The English week starts for the Blue and Whites with the guest game at Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Wednesday, 25 January, 20:30). Before the match, VfL head coach Thomas Letsch answered the journalists' questions at the press conference as usual.
Thomas Letsch on...
...the personnel situation: Paul Grave and Cristian Gamboa are still not available. There was a small setback with Michael Esser, he will also need a while. Konstantinos Stafylidis completed today's team training, Jacek Goralski is also getting more and more up to competition level. Apart from that, all players are ready for action.
...Opponents Bayer 04 Leverkusen: With Leverkusen, you can't avoid the topic of tempo. They are extremely dangerous in the transition game. With Moussa Diaby they have the fastest player in the Bundesliga, Jeremie Frimpong is the third fastest player in the league. Amine Adli has also shown his pace impressively. If you let them run, they are very, very difficult to defend. With Florian Wirtz, they have another type of player. But we also have speed in our ranks. It will be crucial that we take away their strengths and bring our strengths into the game. I'm sure it will be an exciting game.
...the topic of load management: One or the other change is possible. We have an English week, on Saturday we play in Mainz. We haven't decided exactly what the team will look like yet.
...Konstantinos Stafylidis: Stafy's injury is known, it's not dangerous. But he has to cope with the pain. I'm glad that he can participate fully in team training again. It's going a bit faster than expected. He now has to get used to the toughness of two fights again.
...Philipp Hofmann: Philipp is doing very well at the moment. That's the benchmark for all the other strikers, to put pressure on him. Depending on how the game goes, there are different options for the striker position. With Silvere Ganvoula and Moritz Broschinski we have good alternatives.
...Ivan Ordets: Because of his special situation, it took Ivan a while to find his feet here. In the meantime he has really arrived. You can feel that both in his footballing skills and in his manner. He radiates a completely different self-confidence, laughs a lot more and is much, much more open. Ivan is an important player and type for our team, he is taking on more and more responsibility.
...Moritz Broschinski: Moritz is an exciting young player. We see great potential in him. He presented himself well in the first training sessions. What makes him stand out is his very good finishing. Moritz is also open and willing to learn. Now he has to get used to the way we play football. It could be that he will already be in the squad tomorrow evening.
...the loan of Tim Oermann to Wolfsberger AC: Tim has developed super during his time with the professional team. That's why we signed him to a long-term contract. We have high hopes for him and expect a lot from him. In the current situation, however, there was little chance that he would get plenty of playing time. In this respect, I think it's great that he now has the opportunity to prove himself in the highest Austrian league. It will do him good and we are looking forward to him returning in the summer.
