SV Waldhof Mannheim faces MSV Duisburg on Friday evening. That’s what Waldhof coach Luc Holtz said ahead of the match against the 3rd division leaders.
SV Waldhof Mannheim will be guests at third division leaders MSV Duisburg on Friday evening (November 7, 7 p.m.). With four wins from their last six games, coach Luc Holtz’s team has been in strong form recently.
However, Waldhof suffered an unfortunate 2-0 defeat against TSG Hoffenheim’s second team last Sunday. The ninth-placed team missed numerous chances and was unable to capitalize on its superiority.
At the press conference ahead of the away game in Duisburg, Waldhof coach Holtz looked back on his team’s recent defeat. “In terms of performance, we don’t need to do much better than last Sunday.
We should maintain the number of scoring chances we created. Only this time, we have to convert those chances and work on our effectiveness,“ said the Luxembourg native. Now the league leaders await the Kurpfälzer. ”Of course, we are very much looking forward to the game. I think they will approach it with a lot of confidence and intensity as league leaders.
They have a lot of power, a good structure, and good transition play,“ Holtz praised MSV. But: ”We’re not going there to admit defeat, we want to sell ourselves as well as possible,“ added the 56-year-old, who expects a ”beautiful stadium“ and a ”good atmosphere“ that ”motivates every soccer player.”
The Waldhof coach believes his team has a chance against the league leaders, who have been waiting for three points for five games, mainly due to the unpredictability of the 3rd division. “You can see that anyone can beat anyone in this league,” said Holtz, citing Alemannia Aachen’s 2-0 win over 1. FC Saarbrücken on the last matchday as an example. “All games are competitive until the last minute, and we’re not without a chance in Duisburg.”
According to Holtz, in order to take home some points, the team needs to focus on its own strengths. “We’ve been stable in the last three games, even though we lost the last one. Now we’re facing a new opponent with a new organization and new individual players. We’ll have to adapt to that, of course. Nevertheless, we also have to play the way we’ve been working with the ball in recent weeks. I think the guys have internalized that more and more now,” said the former Luxembourg national coach.
The Mannheim team will have to do without Jascha Brandt, Kushtrim Asallari, Sascha Voelcke, Maximilian Thalhammer, and Janne Sietan, who are all injured. There is also still a question mark over the availability of Adama Diakhaby (knee problems).