Baum: “The atmosphere in the dressing room is great right now”

Following FCA’s narrow home defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund last Saturday, the international break is now upon us. Augsburg’s head coach Manuel Baum gave his thoughts on his team’s strong start to the season amongst other things after training on Wednesday. On the international break: “Our internationals don’t really have the chance to get much time off, but the rest of the squad can use this time to recharge their batteries a bit. I would like it if all the players could have a bit of down time, but unfortunately ten players in the squad have international duty. On the other hand, it’s good from a mental perspective to have a rest from the stress of playing games. So there are definitely both positive and negative sides to the international break.” On the strong start to the season: “We’re very satisfied with how things have gone until now, although we could have got a few more points here and there. We can’t allow ourselves to switch off for any period of time, because we know we’ll need every point we can get when it comes to the end of the season. Despite that, the way we’ve started is a good omen for the rest of the campaign. The squad has been together for a long time now, and we’ve been very lucky on the injury front so far. The boys spend a lot of time together, and that translates well onto the pitch. On Daniel Opare’s call-up to the Ghana national squad: “We’re obviously really pleased for Daniel, but this has been a collective effort from everyone who is involved with the team. Daniel recognized after his error against Middlesbrough in the preseason that he’s allowed to make them, but the most important thing is that he needs to learn from the experience. He’s shown that he has done that in the last five games, and he’s performed superbly.” On Caiuby’s good form: “You could tell that he was dealing with a knee problem at the beginning of the season. The best thing he’s doing at the moment is his stellar work off the ball, but he’s also really creative with it at his own feet as well. He’s always in good spirits on top of that, which is always important for the team as a whole.” On Philipp Max’s development: “He’s made a big step forward this season, and has put in some great performances. He’s scored a goal, assisted on multiple, and has defended really well too. You can tell that he’s having fun out there. He’s highly motivated and has developed lots of extra facets to his game. Long may it continue!”