Heller: “We have to get back to what we’re good at”

After two days off from training, FCA started their preparations for Monday’s clash with Borussia Dortmund on Thursday morning. And forward Marcel Heller wants his team to be just as aggressive against Dortmund as they were in the 1-0 loss to Stuttgart. This week has an unfamiliar feeling to it for FC Augsburg. As Manuel Baum’s side will play on Monday against BVB, the week of training has only just begun, on a Thursday. “It’s obviously a bit different, but we still have to treat this week the same as we would any other,” said Marcel Heller. Even though the right winger makes clear that he’d prefer to be playing on a Saturday afternoon, he also says that “we are all professional enough to deal with it.” The game being on Monday also gives Heller and the rest of his teammates an extra day to work on what went wrong in the game against Stuttgart. “Games like that will happen, but we have to learn from it,” demanded the 32-year-old, who didn’t do the fundamentals to his best ability last time out. “We weren’t aggressive enough, so we didn’t have many chances to hit them on the counter-attack,” analysed the winger. “We have to get back to what we’re good at - winning the 50-50 battles.” Heller: “Every game starts at 0-0” Borussia Dortmund should feel the effects of this change on Monday. For Marcel Heller though, BVB’s quality is without question: “We don’t need to talk about how good Dortmund are,” said FCA’s number 7. FCA are equipped to deal with their attacking and active play style, however. And they’re likely to have more space to play with than they did against the very compact Stuttgart side that faced them last week. After winning four games in row in all competitions, Peter Stöger’s side seem to have hit their stride again. “They were very organised in their last few games,” noticed Heller. But that doesn’t mean that Augsburg will have no chance to cause an upset. “Every game starts at 0-0 - we obviously want to come away from Dortmund with points.” The unusual kick-off time on Monday evening won’t do anything to change that aspiration.