Tobias Weis: “I will give 110 percent”

Hello Tobias. The Mainz game was a few days ago now. How do you look back at it?

We wanted to get three points at home and up the ante after the win against Fürth, but we failed to do that. It's now become even more important for us to get something off Schalke on Easter Saturday – ideally three points of course.

A few players will be missing until then due to international fixtures. What effect does that have?

Obviously it's different when you have the whole squad together for preparation ahead of a game, but other Bundesliga teams are in the same boat. For those of us that are here, it's about giving everything in training. This way we get two weeks to prepare for the next game. That can be an advantage because it allows us to go into more detail.

You have been quite the leader on the pitch over the past few games, talking to your teammates, giving them encouragement and directions. How do you see your role at the moment?

I think that every team needs players who set the agenda and march forward with everything they have. I feel very comfortable in that role – it matches my character. I want to avoid relegation with all my might – I will give 110 percent. I'll try to have a positive influence on the lads with my commitment.

The team also went paintballing recently. How was that?

That was a team event. We had fun as a group and got outside of the daily routine. It brought us all a little closer together.

You mentioned fun. To what extent can you have fun in the team's current situation?

The pressure of the situation makes it difficult to have fun, but we have to deal with that. We've been pretty decent in the last few games. We have to follow that up with more points and then the fun side will return. It never completely goes away though. We're all living the dream of being a professional footballer. We've always wanted to play football. It's a very privileged situation to be in.