“We have to sacrifice ourselves for the team”

The Swabian derby against VfB Stuttgart is not far away. On Saturday 23rd September at 15:30 CEST, FCA go to Stuttgart and, after a successful result on Tuesday night against Champions League competitors RB Leipzig, FC Augsburg are heading into the away match in Stuttgart full of confidence. FCA shooting star Philipp Max wants the “to sacrifice everything for the team” against Stuttgart. The recent history of the Swabian derby has most recently been clearly in favour of Augsburg. Many fans will very fondly recall the last away win against VfB Stuttgart as FCA ran out 4-0 winners. Head coach Manuel Baum tried to calm down all the talk of a repeat as he described VfB Stuttgart as an “ambitious promoted side who work hard with and without the ball”. Philipp Max reinforced his head coach’s message as the returning Bundesliga side always put in a strong performance in front of a sold-out home crowd. “Both in terms of quality and depth, Stuttgart have strengthened and invested in their squad”, the left-back added.

Praise for Philipp Max

Philipp Max received extra praise from head coach Baum: “I am very happy with the performances that Philipp has been putting in of late. He doesn’t only have defensive capabilities but he’s dangerous going forward too.” Ahead of Saturday afternoon’s clash, Manuel Baum was asked how he intends to replace suspended captain and midfield general Daniel Baier. The head coach responded: “We’ve refined how we play and we have two or three quality players in the squad in each position. We can play with a back three, four or five and we’ve worked hard in pre-season and in each training session in the past few weeks. We’ve been meticulous with our game plans.” Manuel Baum has to also do without Tim Rieder who is still training individually. Before the pre-match conference, FCA captain Daniel Baier apologised for his conduct in the game against RB Leipzig: “I made a mistake and would like to apologise to those in the stadium and those associated with RB Leipzig.”