'It's important for the players to recover well'

Ahead of the clash with our neighbours from down the Rhine, Peter Bosz faced the press on Friday afternoon. The Bayer 04 head coach shared his views on …

…the upcoming match against Fortuna Düsseldorf: "I'm expecting a difficult game. They've done well recently – they are playing well and picking up points. It definitely won't be easy for us but it's a game we have to win."

…the opponents: "They like to play on the break, they don't have nuch possession and that's how their team is set up. And you have to say they do it well."

…the short recovery period after yesterday' first leg UEFA Europa League game in Krasnodar: "Our games are always very intensive because of the way we play. Therefore, it's also important for the players to recover well. We know two days aren't much – and it was the same after the game against Bayern."

…the fitness and possible appearance of the Bender twins, in particular Sven (he had to go off in yesterday's 0-0 draw at Krasnodar after being kicked on the ankle, ed.): "Lars won't be able to play. I can't say how long it will take with him. But he's on his way back and he is training – but not with the team yet but he will be soon. And I don't know about Sven, we'll have to wait and see. We only got home late last night and all our players are being checked out by the medics today. I'll know a bit more after that."

…possible rotation: "I don't know about that. I'll have to wait and see how each of the players has got over the game and the travelling. With our style of play, that is very intense as I said, all the players have to be fully fit and that's the most important thing." Nevertheless: We have good options and good players to bring in."

…focus given the coming return match against Krasnodar: "We always just look at the next game and anything else doesn't help us. So, we 've been focused on Fortuna Düsseldorf since last night and not before that. And that doesn't mean the game after Düsseldorf isn't important as well. I think you can only win games if your'e really focused on the next opponent and next game.  And I expect that from my players too."

…his team losing possession as he has often said: "If you play as intensively as we do then it's a very important issue and that's why I keep on mentioning it. Losing possession will always happen in football, that's logical. But as we play such an intensive game then we have to lose the ball less and, above all, don't give it away cheaply. That's not possible in a week or a month – it takes longer. Last week, I said it would be an issue  till the end of the season. But I can see that we're improving."

…taking chances: "This is an area you can always improve on. In the Gladbach game, we had had clear chances to score but didn't score once. The number of goals against Mainz was good although we could have scored more. But the most important thing is to create chances and we're doing that. It would be a problem if we we weren't."