Ahead of Saturday’s game (January 24, 2:00 p.m.) against TSV Havelse, one topic dominated the week at Rot-Weiss Essen: Marek Janssen’s interview after the 1860 game.

Rot-Weiss Essen plays TSV Havelse on Saturday. Uwe Koschinat wouldn’t reveal whether Marek Janssen will be in the starting lineup.

“I could, but I won’t (laughs). We have different types of center forwards. I just want to emphasize once again that, as far as I’m concerned, the situation from the 1860 Munich game has no bearing on the Havelse game. I don’t need to prove that I might have bigger balls. Our full focus is on the game against TSV Havelse,” emphasized the RWE coach.

However, Koschinat makes no secret of the fact that, for a short time after the 1860 game, he could only shake his head in response to Marek Janssen’s public criticism of him.

He explained on Friday (January 23): “The fact is, there can be no two opinions on this. He violated an internal rule; he violated our code of conduct.” He also emphasized: “I’m mad at him, and I love him for it. But there are things within the team that should be resolved internally.”

Koschinat went on to say: “I never tire of emphasizing that you need self-confident guys. Marek shouldn’t turn his heart into a pit of despair either. I praised him in the highest terms in front of the entire team for the path he’s taken. Nevertheless, what he did was a mistake. That should have been handled internally. But there’s no hard feelings between the player and me. In the end, I’m somewhat glad that a player coming up from the Regional League has such ambitions. Once again: Everything is fine between Marek and me.”

It remains to be seen whether Koschinat will start Janssen against Havelse, as the player wanted and still wants. The 28-year-old forward has made 14 appearances this season, scoring five goals. According to the stats, Janssen finds the back of the net every 64 minutes—a top mark in the Third Division!