Felix Magath interview

By: j | December 16th, 2008

While it’s more of a press-release, the Bundesliga issued the following interview of Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath and it’s certainly worth the read:

Question: Felix Magath, your team went in front after just three minutes (of the Werder Bremen match). Why were you not able to go on and win it from there?

Felix Magath: We maybe got off to rather too good a start. Going one up unfortunately didn’t settle our game. We were much too passive after taking the lead and let Werder dictate play. Perhaps we thought we could defend a 1-0 advantage through to the finish.

Question: Which would suggest the team had the wrong attitude after going in front…

Magath: What was very noticable was that we only started carving out quality chances for ourselves again in the final half hour, after we’d gone behind. Unfortunately we didn’t convert any of them. But it was way too little, taken over the whole 90 minutes.

Question: VfL only intermittently managed to realise their potential. Is that how you see it too?

Magath: Yes, unfortunately we slept through an hour of the game. For the last 30 minutes I witnessed a great contest. We had five good opportunities and Werder created chances of their own as well.

Question: Why has your team been so unconvincing away from home so far this season?

Magath: In terms of playing quality we’ve been convincing enough at times on the road. We threw away a lot of points at the start of the season. At Schalke we conceded the equaliser in added time and we unnecessarily left points behind in Berlin and Bochum as well.

Question: But why is it that Wolfsburg have an almost unblemished record at home yet haven’t been able to win away at all as yet?

Magath: We get great support from a great crowd at home. That makes things a lot easier. On top of that we’ve often been up against quality opposition on our away trips, like Hoffenheim or Bremen just there. There’s nothing unusual about losing at sides like that.

Question: Still, shouldn’t winning an away game be top of your list of New Year resolutions?

Magath:That’s something we want to improve on in the back-end of the season, for sure. We still have to play host to a lot of the top teams. Hopefully we can maintain our good home record and pick up more points on the road as well. It all kicks off again after the winter holiday and our first shot at doing a better job of it comes right away at Köln.

Question: Are you worried the players could get used to the fact they have a poor away record ?

Magath: No, we’ve already won away in the UEFA Cup after all. So I don’t think it will become a fixed idea in the heads of the players.

Question: Do you have a positive take on the first half of the campaign, despite that weakness on the road?

Magath: I’m very satisfied with developments. We’ve improved a lot in playing terms over last season. We have a young team and we have to accept that they will not always maintain the required level of consistency.