Magath: “Can’t say Bayern are in crisis”

“The current league table is no reason for us to get cocky”, stressed head coach Felix Magath ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bayern Munich (kick-off: 1530 CET). “We’ve had to work hard and scrap for our points, and on Saturday we’ll have to be prepared to run and battle all day.

“After conceding five goals in our last two games we need to show a bit more stability in defence as well”, he continued. In Magath’s view this applies not just to the nominal defenders, but also to the midfield. He said: “If the midfield scrap for every ball and stay tight in Munich, we ought to be stable at the back.”

It is this ability to pressurise the ball that the Schalke boss feels is a key factor in his side’s successful away record. “We have a tradition of defending well, but we still have problems taking the game forward”, he said, explaining why Schalke have garnered more points away than they have at home. “Away from home you have to react more to what the other team do rather than be pro-active yourself, and we’re finding that easier to do at this stage.”

Bayern’s form is up and down at the moment, but for Magath that is no reason to underestimate them. “It’s normal for teams to have these problems when they get a new coaching team and are asked to play in a different way”, he said, “but Bayern are still hot favourites for the title as far as I’m concerned. Though they won’t be happy with the results in the Champions League and in the Bundesliga, you can hardly say a team who are just four points off the lead are going through a crisis.”

The only thing that interests Magath is the football workload. “Bayern had to do 90 minutes in the Champions League during the week and that will have tired them”, he explained. “We, on the other hand, have been able to rest, which gives us a chance now to come away from Munich with something.” And because Bayern are always favourites regardless of the situation they find themselves in, Magath always welcomes the opportunity to go to Munich. “You can travel down totally relaxed and try to make the best of it”, he said.

Ivan is unfortunately not playing the match from start.

The match is on today, Saturday, at 15:30 CET.

( Source )

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under News: match previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.