Coach Christian Streich sees SC Freiburg’s successes this season as being due to the fact that his team usually started with the same or a very similar starting XI.
“I’m glad we decided to play a similar team for many weeks,” said Streich. “That was right for the self-image of the players and the rhythm. Luckily we did it that way,” he explained before the home game in the Bundesliga against Werder Bremen on Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky). This familiarity creates self-confidence.
Despite the triple burden in the Bundesliga, the Europa League and the DFB Cup, Streich and his coaching staff usually only made a few changes. In particular, the defense around national players Matthias Ginter, Philipp Lienhart and captain Christian Günter as well as the defensive midfielders Nicolas Höfler and Maximilian Eggestein belong to the absolute permanent staff – just like Vincenzo Grifo on the offensive or center forward Michael Gregoritsch.
The cup game against St. Pauli was an exception
An exception was the DFB Cup game against second division FC St. Pauli on Wednesday. Before the game, which Freiburg won 2-1 in extra time, with a lot of effort, Streich had a lot of rotation. Compared to the previous 0: 5 at Bayern, he changed the starting lineup to seven positions to give regular players a breather.
With a win against the strong promoted Bremen, the sports club could consolidate its third place in the Bundesliga table or even move up to second place if champions Bayern Munich made a mistake in Hoffenheim. In the DFB-Pokal, the Breisgauer are in the round of 16, in the Europa League they have already reached the knockout round with four wins in four games in the group phase.