Holstein Kiel: Bernhardsson returns

Like. Before the encounter with champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday (3:30 p.m., Holstein-Kiel live ticker), Holstein-Kiel coach Marcel Rapp can be happy about a returnee, but at the same time he has to do without two players. While Alexander Bernhardsson trained with the team for a large part of the public training session on Wednesday and is due to return to full team training on Thursday, Andu Kelati (knee problems) and Carl Johansson (concussion) were missing.

“Things aren’t looking good for both players for the weekend,” explained Rapp after the session. “Bernhardsson is once again a squad option.” From the U23, Quentin Seidel was also allowed to appear with the professionals, who was not allowed to take part in the “Seconds” game against the U23 of SV Werder Bremen anyway due to his suspension.

Rapp: “Leverkusen is a big challenge”

Looking ahead to the game against the champions, the Storks want to do many things better compared to the 2-4 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt. “You could see that we individually have problems defending players. We have to absorb these things as a team,” analyzed Rapp. “We have to be more compact, help each other more and find better ways to trigger the press.”

Not an easy task for the promoted team, especially against the variable Leverkusen team. “Leverkusen is one of the biggest challenges with Bayern. But we got promoted for games like that. It shouldn’t be a game where we start out in front for 90 minutes or are in front of our own box. It will be a mixture of both,” Rapp clarified.

In parts: Rapp criticizes the implementation of the game plan against Frankfurt

Rapp particularly disliked implementing his own game plan against Frankfurt on the sidelines. In his usual manner, the KSV coach did not want to resort to all-out attack days later, but admitted: “There were situations where we defended higher than we intended. We hit players where we shouldn’t have. We did that against Bochum, but it didn’t come to fruition.”

And further: “Football also has something to do with intuition. Sometimes the boys have to make decisions and listen to their gut feeling. There were moments that we addressed in the analysis, but fundamentally not everything was wrong.”

KN