Dieter Hecking reflecting on first half of season

Continuing along with an "open-door" policy of the club, Hannover 96 leader Dieter Hecking reflected upon the first half of season via the clubs web-site.

Given that the club has had terrible injury problems the first half of the year, Mr. Hecking was asked were there other reasons other than the injury problems?

DH: "Preparing for matches is always difficult when lots of players are away on international duty, and also we did ourselves no favours by picking up several red cards. So overall it was nigh on impossible to be at our best as a team.“

It has also been suggested that Hannover lack a leader in their team...

DH: "That will always be the case when the natural hierarchy of the team is laid low by injury at the same time. Losing players such as Robert Enke, Michael Tarnat, Valérien Ismaël, Altin Lala and Arnold Bruggink would rock any side. We had to rely on others to step up, and so set-backs are to be expected. But I'm sure this kind of crisis will serve a purpose as well. The situation brings people together and speeds up the learning process for younger players."

So was it just factors that were outside of your control that were to blame?

Dieter Hecking: "Let me make one thing clear: with the expectations that we have created at Hannover 96 over the last few years it is not good enough to draw at home against teams like Cottbus, Bochum and Bielefeld. Regardless of other factors. We are critical enough of ourselves to see that. We have a responsibility to scrutinize our own performances and face up to the critics, as long as they have a point. The most important thing is to look in the mirror after the game and know you have analyzed all your mistakes and done everything you possibly could.“

Would you have done anything differently given the chance?

DH: "After the Cottbus game at the end of last season I wouldn't have said that we would collect five more points this season, which is now much quoted. I underestimated the importance that would be placed on it, even though I think most fans took it as a sign of healthy optimism rather than as a literal promise. After our difficult start the media kept bringing up this quote and putting even more pressure on us. But the flip-side is that had we not set ourselves a high target people would have accused us of being happy to make no progress.“

And what do you make of all the discussions surrounding your tactical system?

DH: "As soon as you start talking about whether a team should play with one, two or three nominal strikers you move away from the question of offensive and defensive tactics. Modern teams should be flexible enough to react to different situations in games. That's what we did against Bochum, but most of the public didn't notice. Incidentally we beat both Bayern and HSV using a 4-2-3-1 formation, and used the same line-up when we beat Gladbach 5-1. Obviously we will decide how we line-up depending on the opponent. We will always do what we feel is best.“

After the disappointing first 17 games, what are your realistic aims for the second half of the season?

DH: "We will all use the time during the winter break as usefully as possible to analyse our situation and eliminate the mistakes we have been making, and then hopefully go into the New Year with renewed vigour. We all have to take responsibility and take strength from coming through the crisis. If we can find our rhythm and keep big errors out of our game the team can definitely make huge strides forward."