Elfadli: “More determination as well as consistency”

The game against the German record champions was a significant moment in Daniel Elfadli’s career, which the versatile defender had already touched on before the trip to face FC Bayern München. 90 revealing minutes then passed and the third Bundesliga matchday came to a close, with focus turning towards the next challenge – it’s not for nothing that people say football is a quick business. And so all eyes – including Elfadli’s – turn away from the game last weekend and forward to the upcoming fixture. The 28-year-old spoke about all this and more during his media session. Elfadli on...

... the game in Munich: It still feels a bit surreal to have shared the pitch with those players in a stadium which I only knew from watching on TV.  Bayern are the best team in Germany and one of the best in Europe. I was a little more excited than usual, just because it was a something special for me considering my journey and how I started my career a little later. When I came on in the second half, I forgot all of that and just looked to push my team forwards and help them to do their best.

“We have been critical of how we played and the performance we put in and have clearly identified things we need to work on”

... what he’s taken away from the first few games: We knew what awaited us in this league, however, our start to the season has not gone the way we hoped it would. We have been critical of how we played and the performance we put in and have clearly identified things we need to work on. It’s clear that we need to play better, create more chances and get in the box more in order to create those goalscoring opportunities. To do that, we need to be better in transition and play with more determination as well as consistency. We’ve lost the ball too often in these situations, which has let our opponents come back at us time and time again. It is clear that we need to get stronger.

... the upcoming game with Heidenheim: I’m expecting a pretty intense match, as fundamentally, Heidenheim are a side who defend with intensity and often man for man. A lot will be decided in the individual battles. We have to be able to move around freely in these situations and pick the right option when we have the ball. We absolutely don’t want to play down Heidenheim, as they have achieved great things in the past few years. Despite this, we are going into this game to win it, as you really need to win games like this in the Bundesliga.