Hoeness: "We're now in the role of the hunter"

Following their recent winless run, TSG Hoffenheim will be raring to go when they travel to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday (15:30 CET / Live Ticker at tsg-hoffenheim.de). Prior to the match, head coach Sebastian Hoeness spoke about the personnel situation, the run-in to the league season and the opposition.

Sebastian Hoeness on…

…the table situation: "The mood has shifted a bit. There was disappointment after the game, but since then there's been a desire to go on the attack. We're now in the role of the hunter. We shall embrace this situation, even if we'd have liked it to be different."

…the recent problems in attack: "We're creating a lot of big chances. Unfortunately, the final pass and the finishing are not up to scratch at the moment. Unfortunately, there are always spells like that. We need to create space and situations to enable us to succeed more often. It's a case of correcting our chance conversion. If we can get into the decisive areas, the ball will go in again. There is no toolbox for this that you can take a tool from and everything is fixed. We need a certain nonchalance and the right sharpness."

…the opposition: "Frankfurt are unpleasant to play against. Eintracht are heavily geared towards possession turnovers and counters. They frequently play with the same personnel. However, they have not delivered their usual results at home or in the second half of the league season. We therefore believe we can get something. But we certainly mustn't underestimate Frankfurt."

…the personnel situation: "Ermin Bičakčić, Chris Richards, Benjamin Hübner and Marco John will miss out through injury. Christoph Baumgartner and Pavel Kadeřábek are suspended. There's still a big question mark hanging over Florian Grillitsch. He hasn't trained today. I think Stefan Posch and Dennis Geiger have a slightly better chance."

The opposition:

Frankfurt may have recently shone in the Europa League but they have been faltering in the Bundesliga. Oliver Glasner's team are currently on a four-game winless streak in the league and have slipped down to 10th spot. They are already eight points adrift of sixth place.

Head-to-head record:

Hoffenheim's 3-2 victory in the reverse fixture means the two clubs have an even head-to-head record. Both Frankfurt and Hoffenheim have nine wins, while there have been seven draws. That said, Eintracht have scored one goal more overall (33-32). TSG's last triumph in Frankfurt came in April 2016.