Manuel Baum: “We want to surprise”

After the first home game of the season, the FC Augsburg players were back on the training pitch on Wednesday. Despite a number of players away on international duty, training for the rest of the squad went ahead as usual. After the session Manuel Baum gave his thoughts on… …FCA’s best start ever to a Bundesliga season: “I don’t make much of it. I feel we’ve played some tidy football and had some luck, but we’ve worked hard for it. The game against Gladbach was great to watch. Against Mainz it might be completely different.” ...setting targets for the season: “We want to surprise, however, most of all, it’s about avoiding relegation. We caused a shock against Gladbach. The boys played with a lot of intensity and made it fun for the crowd, we want to carry on surprising like this.” …the injury situation: “Caiuby took a hit to his toe. Audi Luthe, Felix Götze and Jeffrey Gouweleeuw are back on workload training. Jeff will be back to normal tomorrow. Those who are fit are giving their all. We also had seven players from the juniors join us today. Alfred Finnbogason is slowly making progress. He’s been on the pitch more recently. We’ll just have to see how his patellar tendon holds up when he trains.” FCA squad member Philipp Max caused a real sensation with his numerous assists last season. Against Gladbach he was responsible for another assist. After training, the defender spoke about… …the start to the season: “Overall we are happy with how we have performed so far. We gave everything in the home game and deserved to go into the lead. We pressed well for the whole first half. It was a good game and just a shame that we couldn’t get the win. We conceded another goal following a set-piece, despite having worked on this all through pre-season. Overall we are on the right path though.” …not making the German national squad: “I haven’t given it much thought. Of course, you read or hear about these things, but I don’t let it distract me. I give my all in training and let my performances speak for themselves at the weekend. Making the national team remains a target of mine. It could happen any time, I’ll just have to wait and see.”