The start to the new year has been negative without exception for 1. FCN, which is positive all round in these special times. The Corona tests carried out on Sunday showed that no player needs to be quarantined.
This means that at the club, at least as far as the virus is concerned, everyone can be on the pitch for the first training session of the year on Tuesday. This result fits in with the positive mood that prevails in and around the FCN.
The target for the rest of the season: 24 points
A new start, which is under the slogan “further development”. Coach Robert Klauß reiterates what his superiors, sporting director Dieter Hecking and sporting director Olaf Rebbe, had emphasised between the years: confidence in the squad and confidence that it will continue to improve. “I am satisfied with the squad, for me it is now a matter of getting everything out of it that is possible,” said Klauß. In concrete terms: The 27 points of the first half of the season are the benchmark, so the target for the 16 remaining games is 24 points. The fact that it could be more needs no explanation.
This inevitably raises the question of promotion. If those responsible for the team are firstly confident that they can improve their performance, and secondly, if they state this as their goal, this could be interpreted as a “Bundesliga-we-are-coming” approach in view of the standings.
A false conclusion, as the FCN coach points out. In the meantime, he feels perfectly comfortable with the target of 5th to 8th place, which he set out in the summer and which he viewed critically at the time, calls it realistic and therefore sees no reason to change it. Rather, he puts the targeted further development in a different context. “In professional sport, you always want to improve, and when you have a young team like ours, you always work on taking the next steps. And this is already happening now with a view to the summer,” Klauß elaborates.
The question on which positions the FCN has to do something or not, will be answered in the next weeks and months – by the players, with whose development the coach is satisfied in the past months in most cases. As an example, he singles out left-back Tim Handwerker, who has always done a good job defensively and was therefore often viewed too critically. “We have worked a lot on the offensive with Tim, and the results are impressive. He has made a noticeable step forward in the past few games, without being a high-flyer now,” says Klauß. The fact that Handwerker, of all people, is now being traded as a potential candidate for sale in the current transfer period with a view to his expiring contract, namely if the planned extension threatens to come to nothing, leaves the FCN coach completely cold: “That’s not a coaching issue, I don’t think about that. “
Only Lohkemper and Hübner in convalescence
The only thing he is interested in at the moment: The preparation for the match against Paderborn, which starts in 13 days. He can tackle the game with almost the full squad, with only offensive all-rounder Felix Lohkemper and central defender Florian Hübner still having to miss out on team training. In the case of the former, this was foreseeable; with the 26-year-old, the FCN hoped and still hopes for a return to league action only for mid to late March anyway, while the defender, on the other hand, should return to normal training after the end of his holiday. The 30-year-old’s operated shoulder does not allow this after all.
The fact that striker Erik Shuranov’s muscles tweaked during the holiday and goalkeeper Christian Mathenia is currently laid up with a stomach flu is a trivial matter in comparison.
