Manuel Baum: “We have to do our homework“

In their second-to-last home game of the season, FC Augsburg are looking forward to welcoming a difficult opponent to the WWK Arena. Namely, a Mainz side who are fighting for Bundesliga survival. FCA have been preparing for the game since Tuesday. After the most recent training session, Manuel Baum spoke about... ... the injury list: “Daniel Baier is still a big question mark going into the weekend. He has improved, but we won’t risk anything with him, as with every other player. He has to be 100 percent fit. Alfred Finnbogason completed an intense training session today. We have to wait and see as to whether he’ll be ready for Sunday, but he himself has said that he’s getting better. Marcel Heller and Kevin Danso are both ready to pick up their workloads. Marcel took part in some drills today and I think that he’ll take a full part tomorrow. Kevin will join up with the rest of the team tomorrow as well. They could both be available for the weekend.” ... the game against Wolfsburg: “Our main problem was that we lost the ball too much after winning it back ourselves and as a result squandered a lot of counter-attacking opportunities. That was the case in the first half especially. After that, the main aim was to stay resolute in defence and that’s exactly what the boys managed to do. The second half was much better. Marco Richter combined superbly with Michael Gregoritsch. It was all going well until the red card...” ... the primary goal of the season: “It doesn’t make sense to change our goals when we haven’t even reached our original ones yet. It’s the same in all walks of life and as a player you have to learn from it. You can’t lose focus from the important things. That’s one thing I’ve realised from the Rückrunde, because we had a very good first half of the season and some young players with little experience got their chance for the first time. Maybe the focus had shifted a bit. If we have 40 points come this weekend, then maybe we can start to think about what comes next, but we have to do our homework to make sure that happens. ... the upcoming opponents: “I was in the stadium on Monday and watched the game live. Mainz are an aggressive side that have a good mentality. They have a very strong and compact midfield. I think that it will be an evenly matched game. For us, it’s all about reaching 40 points. It will be a gritty game and the team that plays with more desire out on the pitch will undoubtedly win.”