Maaßen: “Full focus on the game”
FCA host Mainz
First Team
21.09.2023, 14:03
FC Augsburg will look to get their first win of the season when they take on 1. FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday afternoon (15:30 CEST), and FCA head coach Enrico Maaßen is asking his team to be fully focused for 90 minutes in order to pull this off.
“We want to show from the outset that we want to win the game and get the crowd on our side,” said Maaßen. FCA were put to the sword by RB Leipzig in their last game (3-0), with all three of RBL’s goals coming in the first half. Mainz are also winless this season and fell to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of VfB Stuttgart last weekend. Bo Svensson’s side find themselves bottom of the table with one point from four games.
FCA’s head coach has his sights set on three points after the last two home games ended in draws (4-4 against Gladbach, 2-2 against Bochum). Maaßen told journalists about the intensity in this week’s training sessions, saying, “The team is very focused. It’s all about minimising the number of basic mistakes we’re making. We want to have a good atmosphere in the dressing room and put in a convincing performance.”
New, exciting football
Japhet Tanganga and Masaya Okugawa, who have been training individually this week, will be unavailable for Saturday’s game, alongside Raphael Framberger and Reece Oxford, who are both suffering from long-term injuries. Maaßen didn’t reveal whether he’d stick with playing three at the back or shift back to playing with four defenders. However, the 39-year-old believes that it will be possible to play some exciting football in new ways against Mainz – just like they did in the second half against Leipzig.
There are only 1,500 tickets still available in the home end for our clash against Mainz.
