Before Saturday’s game (January 24, 2 p.m.) against TSV Havelse, Rot-Weiss Essen had one dominant topic this week: Marek Janssen’s interview after the 1860 game.

Rot-Weiss Essen plays TSV Havelse on Saturday. Uwe Koschinat did not want to reveal whether Marek Janssen would be in the starting lineup. “I could, but I won’t (laughs). We have different center forward profiles. I just want to emphasize once again that the situation from the 1860 Munich game has no bearing on the Havelse game for me. I don’t need to show 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 after the 1860 game, he could only shake his head for a short time due to Marek Janssen’s public criticism of him.

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

Koschinat also said: ”I never tire of emphasizing that you need confident guys. Marek shouldn’t hide his feelings either. I praised him in the highest terms in front of the whole team for the way he handled it. Nevertheless, what he did was a mistake. It should have been dealt with internally. But there is no bad blood between the player and me. Ultimately, I’m quite happy that a player who comes 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 striker has made 14 appearances this season, scoring five goals. According to statistics, Janssen scores every 64 minutes – a top score in the third division!