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Dimitrios Grammozis: Take the momentum from the Nürnberg game
FC Schalke 04’s final game of 2021 is away to Hamburger SV on Saturday night (18/12, 20:30 CET). Head coach Dimitrios Grammozis will be back after missing the last two matches due his Covid-19 infection.
“Being stuck at home for 14 days was a unique time,” said the 43-year-old, who has been back on the training ground since Thursday (16/12) after returning a negative PCR test. “I’m happy to be back training the team. I can’t wait for the final game of the year in Hamburg now,” commented Grammozis. The coach will be without several players for this clash: Michael Langer is still completing rehabilitation training after tearing his ACL, whilst fellow goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann is also out, having suffered from muscular problems recently. “Ralle has trained, though he hasn’t been able to complete the full sessions, so the risk would be too high,” explained Grammozis. As well as those goalkeepers, Danny Latza, Dominick Drexler and Simon Terodde will also miss out on the trip up north due to injuries.
Sané and Bülter in the squad
There was better news regarding Salif Sané and Marius Bülter though: “Salif is in good shape again and will be in the squad. He’s trained well this week and feels good,” reported Grammozis. Bülter, who had missed the last two matches with high blood levels, has increased his workload each day. “He’s doing good. His movement and enjoyment has been impressive.”
We’re travelling to Hamburg to put in a good performance and end the year well as a team.
The coach can see how excited his players are to take on the side level on points with S04, albeit one place ahead of them in third. “The lads are raring to go, they’re motivated in training and they’ve taken the momentum from the Nürnberg game,” stated Grammozis. “We’re travelling to Hamburg to put in a good performance and end the year well as a team.”
The team should be more comfortable playing together after the winter break
The head coach is mainly satisfied with the way the first half of the season went. “It’s completely normal that a newly put-together team takes a bit of time to get used to each other,” said Grammozis, referring to the fact that there were 46 transfers overall at the club this summer. The aim of being close to the promotion places by the halfway mark has been achieved, though Grammozis stressed: “We’re not going to relax now. We know we’ve still got several things we need to improve on.” The boss also believes the team should be more comfortable playing together after the winter break.
The younger players in the side, whose role has increased recently, should play an important part in the second half of the season. Grammozis stated that he wants a mixture of experience and youth. One of those youngsters is Florian Flick, who reflected on a successful year for him personally: “2021 was a good year for me. I made my first appearances and scored my first goal for the first team,” said the 21-year-old. Flick feels that the team is continuing to grow this season and that there’s a good mood around the changing room.
We want to have our own dangerous attacking moments.
Grammozis explained how his team should play like they did in the 4-1 win over Nürnberg if they want to be successful against HSV. “Our defensive tackling, compactness and aggressive pressing will be important factors,” remarked the coach, who also wants his team to be confident on the ball. “We want to have our own dangerous attacking moments.”
