For Borussia Dortmund II, the victory over FSV Zwickau is an important milestone in the relegation battle. BVB coach Jan Zimmermann now demands the right focus from his team.

Borussia Dortmund’s second team has had an exhausting week. Even though BVB coach Jan Zimmermann is pleased with the 4-0 win over FSV Zwickau, he is not completely satisfied with the results of the last three games: “We dropped points unnecessarily, especially against Oldenburg. But we are in a situation where everything is in our own hands and we also have the confidence that we will get the points we need.”

Justin Njinmah was at his best against Zwickau with two goals and an assist. Under Zimmermann’s guidance, he seems to be able to fully develop his potential: “Since I’ve been here, we’ve had a good exchange, he’s making really strong plays. He also works a lot for the team, that is a bit underestimated with him. When everyone works for the team, everyone is rewarded in the end. He’s part of the team, just as we benefit from him, he benefits from the others.”

Also putting in a strong performance was Ted Tattermusch, who put the hosts ahead in the opening stages. It was the first starting appearance for the 21-year-old under Zimmermann. “Ted had clear tasks, scoring goals was actually a secondary one. I’m especially happy for him, he put everything in every day in every training session and fitted in well with the plan in this English week. When someone works so hard for the team, he deserves the goal,” Zimmermann praised the centre-forward.

Class preservation in own hands

After the win against Zwickau, Dortmund are in 16th place in the table. Zimmermann is confident about the relegation battle in the last ten games: “It’s a tight league. We have shown that we can keep up and also beat good teams, that should give us confidence. But we’ve also seen that if we don’t reach our limit and don’t work the way we have to, we can also look bad against any team.

However, the coach doesn’t want to worry about the next task in Munich next weekend: “After the week, we’ll all do well to take a breather and let the game sink in. From Tuesday on, we’ll deal with 1860 Munich. We showed against Mannheim and at times against Dresden that we have the quality. But quality alone is simply not enough, so we look from week to week.

We still have enough games to get the points we need. We don’t want to look so much at the other teams.

Jan Zimmermann

For Zimmermann, it is essential to maintain the right focus even in the final phase. “We still have enough games to get the points we need. We don’t want to look so much at the other teams. If we start calculating every week, that won’t get us anywhere. We have to stick to ourselves and collect our points, then it will be enough in the end,” the 43-year-old predicted.