'We want to do better against Hannover'

…the fitness of Paulinho: "Paulinho has come back from the two internationals in Chile with problems. He will join in with the warm-up in the final pre-match training session and then we'll see where he's up to.

…other absentees: "With Panos Retsos, we're going to reintroduce him to full training this week step-by-step. In the last two or three sessions, he has completed all the practice games. But I think it's too soon for him to be in the squad for tomorrow's game. And Julian Baumgartlinger is getting better every day but the Hannover game has come too soon for him as well. I hope he can complete all the training sessions next week. Charles Aránguiz is also sidelined – he's still training on his own."

…Leon Bailey missing out on his international debut: "We discussed the situation for a long time time yesterday (the rumoured argument with the Jamaican Football Association, ed.). I don't want to divulge what we said to each other. Leon has my full support. It was important to me that he opened up – for me it was about getting a feeling for how he sees it. You can't forget he's only 21. We like to judge young people and how they are supposed to see things and supposed to act. I can only repeat his desire and dream is to play for Jamaica. It didn't work out this time but I can't say what will happen in the future."

…likelihood of Bailey playing against Hannover: "Of course, during the conversation it was also at the back of my mind about finding out if Leon had a clear head for Saturday as he's been under the cosh from the media over the past few days. I think he's ready. And I want him to feel the team needs him – and ideally with the performances he produced between October and February last season."

…the situation on the pitch: "We didn't get off to a good start in terms of results with three defeats. We're playing catch-up at the moment. We're aiming to pick up three points against Hannover here on Saturday. It will look a bit better then but still not very good."

…lessons from the Freiburg game: "Our defensive performance against Freiburg was generally good – except for the shot against the post late on. Before that, we were solid and didn't give much away. We didn't quite create enough chances going forwards as we weren't quite sharp enough. We've worked on all that: We had a couple of video sessions last week, worked on it training and obviously we want to do better against Hannover."

…recent criticism of him in the media: "In general, criticism is certainly justified. I accept the criticism even if it was below the belt once or twice. But that's ok by me. Overall I prefer a more respectful interaction. If a journalist goes over the top then he has to deal with it himself."