#TSGSCF preview: “You can’t take your eyes off Petersen for a second“

Julian Nagelsmann on...

... the opponents.

“Freiburg are clearly very dangerous from set pieces. We’ve struggled to defend them ourselves recently, so we need to try and be as disciplined as possible. If we do give some away, then we need to deal with them accordingly. Moreover, they’re a tight-knit group with a great attitude - which we experienced firsthand when we played them earlier in the season. What’s more, they have a lot of pace down the left flank and a top quality striker in Nils Petersen - you can’t take your eyes off him for a second.”

... Freiburg coach Christian Streich.

“I admire Christian Streich, because he has such a strong opinion on how do go about things, and he stays true to that. It’s clear to everyone that he’s done some unbelievable work at Freiburg over these last few years. What impresses me a lot is how loved he is throughout the whole club. That shows how good of a person he is and how good of a coach he is.

... the squad.

“The injury list has shortened thankfully. Serge Gnabry and Dennis Geiger trained in full again and are making good progress. Kerem Demirbay will miss out once again. Stefan Posch will also miss out and thinks aren’t looking good for Steven Zuber either. He’s dealing with a thigh problem, but we’re still waiting for a diagnosis. If he’s got any structural damage to the muscle, then he’ll probably be out for a couple of weeks.

... the sporting situation I.

“I’m not looking at the table right now. We’re right in the middle. So the main thing for us is to be more consistent over the next few weeks, without looking too much at the standings. The whole team really wants to get back to winning ways and we’re going to use that desire to our advantage. The whole club holds some sort of responsibility when the results aren’t going our way. But I’ll also say this: The season is not over and we still have the chance to get even better.

... the sporting situation II.

“Attitude is not an issue for this team. The boys always train hard and play hard. Emotion is always important in professional sport, and that includes football. We were lacking it in the first 30 minutes against Schalke. It didn’t have anything to do with their attitude though. It was to do with the pace of the game. That kind of emotion develops through physicality, through winning tackles and winning the ball back and by scoring goals - not really through long periods of possession. In Schalke, we played the ball around the back quite a lot and lacked the pace that we needed. So we didn’t reach that level of emotion that we needed to. We did much better in the second half, but we couldn’t quite pull it back.

The head to head

Saturday’s game will mark the 16th time that these two sides have met in the Bundesliga. Freiburg have won four times, while TSG have won three times. The shares were spoiled on eight occasions. The last home game against Freiburg ended in a 2-1 win for TSG in October 2016, with Andrej Kramaric scoring the winner from the spot.

The opponent’s form

On matchday 12 in the middle of November last year, SC Freiburg lost to VfL Wolfsburg 3-1. Since then, they’ve lost only one further game - on matchday 22 in Hannover. Freiburg have picked up 20 points in the last eleven games, including another three last week at home to Werder Bremen. However, Freiburg have only won one game away from home this season - against bottom placed Cologne in December. Nils Petersen scored the last two goals in the 4-3 win - both in extra time, both from the penalty spot.

The key battle

Teams led by Christian Streich have always been tactically organised and close together. However, Nils Petersen has separated himself this season. If you can keep him in check, then your chances of coming away with points are much higher. The striker has scored has scored ten goals in his last eleven appearances is reflective of his club’s positive trend as a whole recently. Kevin Vogt, Benjamin Hübner and Co. will have to be fully focused, because Petersen has a real knack of being in the right place at the right time.

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