Team news was a hot topic at Thursday afternoon’s pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Bochum at the weekend. Who could play at right-back? Who will start in central midfield? Who will be named up front? Regarding the first question, it’s clear that Lukas Kübler will definitely not start on Saturday. The Bonn-born defender is suspended after accumulating five yellow cards.

Kiliann Sildillia is “definitely an option” to play there according to Julian Schuster. “His situation hasn’t been easy, but he’s got on with things and has trained well,” said the SC coach. Max Rosenfelder, who has played in the position before, was forced off after 45 minutes in the 2-1 defeat at home to FC Bayern last Saturday and he is still suffering with a thigh problem. “It’s a race against time for Max,” reported Schuster. “Even if he’s fit enough to play, we’re going to need lads on Saturday that are capable of giving 100% and leaving everything out there.”

Patrick Osterhage missed out last weekend but is an option again for the trip to play his former side. “He’s been back in full training since Tuesday. He was out for a week but was fully fit prior to that. We’ll decide on our team depending on who is 100% fit,” explained Schuster.

Praise for Grifo and Günter

Attacker Vincenzo Grifo, who has had a hand in the most goals for Freiburg this season (5 goals, 7 assists in the Bundesliga), dropped to the bench last time out against Bayern, just like his partner on the left wing, captain Christian Günter. Their coach was pleased with how they dealt with only being named as substitutes. “It was a tough decision. The way they reacted was fantastic,” added Schuster. “Everyone is allowed to be annoyed at me, but the key thing is then how they train. They are role models for lots of other players. I’m really thankful to have two such professional leaders in my squad.”

As usual, Schuster wasn’t prepared to reveal his starting XI for Saturday’s game at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion. SC have worked a lot on their play with the ball recently. “We’ve looked to find the right balance in training over the last two weeks between preparing for our next game and working on what’s important for our own play,” commented the coach. “We need to try and match the attitude we had last week, it has to be spot on. That’s the most important thing first of all on Saturday.”

Höler excited to play in Bochum

Freiburg claimed 12 points against their next five opponents (VfL Bochum, 1. FC Heidenheim, FC St. Pauli, SV Werder Bremen and FC Augsburg) in the first half of the season. “The biggest mistake we could make would be to say: ‘Now we’ll start picking up points again’. It’s not as easy as that,” warned Schuster. “We’re playing at a stadium that can get really noisy.” Bochum are unbeaten in their last three home games and their most recent match in front of their own fans saw them come from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 against RB Leipzig.

2,600 SC fans will be in Bochum to support the team. Lucas Höler recently revealed how much he enjoys playing there: “I really like it in Bochum. I always watch them play on a Friday night or a Sunday. Every game is a real scrap and I’m looking forward to it.”

Photo: Achim Keller