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Dimitrios Grammozis: Darko Churlinov is an option in attack
The Royal Blues are looking for a win against 1. FC Nürnberg in their final home game of 2021 and the final game of the first half of the season when the two sides meet at the VELTINS-Arena on Friday (18:30 CET). Just as they did last Saturday for the away match at FC St. Pauli, S04 will be without head coach Dimitrios Grammozis on the touchline, but he did virtually participate in a pre-match presser and he faced questions from the media.
“I’m doing well, considering the circumstances,” said the 43-year-old, who is currently isolating at home after contracting Coronavirus. “I feel fit, am staying at home and am trying to have as much influence on proceedings as possible from a distance,” added Grammozis, who hopes to get back to the team as soon as possible. “I miss working with the players every day,” commented the Schalke head coach, who is still very much involved whilst working from home. “I talk a lot with Sven Piepenbrock and I get sent all of the video footage from training, which we analyse together before discussing how best to prepare for the next game,” reported Grammozis, who has great faith in his coaching staff and praised them for the “super job” they are doing in what is not an easy situation.
On the same wavelength with the coaching staff
Grammozis was in contact with assistant coach Matthias Kreutzer and video analyst Lars Gerling during last Saturday’s match against FC St. Pauli, and the pair forwarded Grammozis’ observations to Sven Piepenbrock, who made the step up to the touchline in the head coach’s absence. “The three or four things that I noticed about the game were also picked up by the coaching staff,” said Grammozis, who is glad to be on the same page as his colleagues.
Bülter and Topp ruled out – Drexler a doubt
Marius Bülter will not feature in the game against 1. FC Nürnberg as well as his head coach. “The cardiologists have done some tests on Marius, and we’ve decided that it wouldn’t be sensible for him to play on Friday night,” said Grammozis, who hopes that Bülter, who returned some concerning results during a blood test last week, will be back in some part of team training next week. Dominick Drexler’s involvement in Friday night’s match is doubtful after picking up a muscle problem during the game against the league leaders. A decision will be made after the final training session. Keke Topp, who played his first minutes for S04 in Hamburg, sustained an injury playing for the U19s and is unavailable for the weekend.
Churlinov as an alternative option in attack
Florian Flick, Yarsolav Mikhailov and Darko Churlinov have all returned to the squad, and the latter is being viewed as an option in attack, revealed Grammozis: “Darko is a versatile player, and that’s one of the reasons we signed him,” commented the head coach, who has been unable to select the 21-year-old due to him picking up a shoulder injury whilst on international duty with North Macedonia recently.
It will be a challenge, but we’re looking forward to it.
Grammozis is not expecting to have to make any major tactical changes for the game against FCN despite the current personnel situation. “The lads that play tomorrow will be as tactically sound and aware as the lads who’ve played a bit more than them,” said the S04 head coach. “It’s not worth changing everything around, because we still have a quality group of lads who are available to play. They’re going to give it their all and work hard against a tough opponent.”Grammozis adds that Nürnberg themselves have “a lot of good lads” in their squad and that they set up similarly to St. Pauli. “It will be a challenge, but we’re looking forward to it.”
