Mainz coach Bo Svensson is again spoilt for choice at the eight positions. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to call on striker Adam Szalai on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old Hungarian international will see a doctor again today (Monday) because of the neck contusion he suffered in a traffic accident. Szalai drove his car off the motorway on the way to the final training session on Friday and crashed into the crash barrier, which is why he missed the game against FC Bayern (1:2). It now depends on the medical examiner’s verdict whether the attacker will be part of the 05 squad against Hertha BSC on Tuesday.
“We now have to squeeze everything out for the last two games. It’s well known that we don’t have the very biggest squad, we deliberately chose that,” said Svensson, who will definitely have to do without the long-term injured Jeremiah St. Juste (shoulder surgery), Dominik Kohr (muscle-tendon injury in the thigh) and Anderson Lucoqui (knee ligament injury) until the end of the year. “Regeneration, regeneration, regeneration, a little bit of analysis and a little bit of preparation,” are the priorities according to Svensson during the English week, which ends on Saturday with the neighbourly duel at Eintracht Frankfurt.
I didn’t know the stats, so you can see what they mean to me.
Mainz are unbeaten in four games against Hertha. In 2019/20, FSV won both matches, while in pre-season both comparisons ended in a draw. In home games, the 05ers are even without defeat for six games (three wins, three draws). “I didn’t know the statistics, so you can see what they mean to me,” the coach stressed.
Qual of choice at the eight position
For Svensson, the current form of his players is in the foreground and here he sees a strong upward trend in Leandro Barreiro. After being rotated to the bench due to a “lack of freshness”, the Luxembourg international is now back in the starting eleven. “Now we are seeing the Leo we know again. He gives our game a lot and is a team player through and through. He delivered very good games against Wolfsburg and Bayern,” Svensson praised the midfielder, who is competing with Jae-Sung Lee and Jean-Paul-Boetius for the two vacant places on the eight-man position.
