Henriksen on “incredible fans” and a breather for his team

In addition to their ongoing work during the two-week international break, the first team, coaches and backroom staff will also have time to switch off and collect themselves, and get a break from life on Bruchweg from Thursday lunchtime. After a physically and emotionally draining few months for the 05ers, a period of respite after their third win of the season will provide a welcome boost, said the Mainz head coach after the first of this week’s three public training sessions. “It’s important that everyone has a chance to destress and, above all, for the players to get a few days of rest. They will complete a programme at home. After the weekend, we’re onto the home stretch of eight finals, which we’re looking forward to,” said Bo Henriksen, who was noticeably less intense and vocal than usual in Tuesday’s session.

The Dane’s euphoria looking back on last weekend was evident, not only because of the crucial victory, but because of the energy that surrounded it. Fans gathered on Bruchweg on the morning of matchday to wave the team goodbye, and the near-sold-out MEWA ARENA delivered an electric atmosphere. “I feel a lot of energy, faith and trust. The fans were incredible on Saturday, and the whole city is behind us. I haven’t been here for long, but that feels really good. We want to keep this momentum and optimism,” said Henriksen, who praised the reaction of his team after the demoralising 8-1 defeat in Munich. With seven points from his first five games, the head coach is pleased with the team’s form, but also knows that they have to increase their points total as much as possible in order to achieve their aim of Bundesliga survival. At the moment though, “the positive energy from the win is doing everyone good, especially in a season with so many negative experiences.”

New competition in the team, Weiper making progress

The head coach is optimistic, not just because of the upwards trend caused by the recent positive results, but also the situation in the squad which meant for the first time last week he had to decide which first-team players would miss out on a place in the squad. “It wasn’t like that in my first few weeks here, but this is exactly the competition we need in the team,” said the Dane, who also mentioned that players like Jonny Burkardt or Andreas Hanche-Olsen (with the Norway national side) can continue to work on their fitness during the international break. Nelson Weiper is progressing well too, having trained individually on Tuesday and also carefully beginning to practise his shooting. In two or three weeks, the homegrown talent could, in the best-case scenario, begin thinking about team training, according to Henriksen. “He might even be an option for the Bundesliga again in April.”

The head coach took the situation at face value, just as he has since day one. He explained that, at the end of the day, it’s all about achieving the collective goal: “We just want to stay up. I don’t care how. We’re approaching every game as if it was our last. It makes no sense to look too far ahead. That might sound boring, but it’s the right way of dealing with this complicated situation. We can also have fun. We’re going to keep attacking, since it’s more fun to fight for something than defend it. This relegation battle is a great opportunity to see how each individual player, but also how the group deals with pressure. I’ve been in situations like this before and know what goes on in people’s heads.”

Mainz’s next chance to pick up three points will be on Easter Sunday (30.03, 15:30 CET) when they travel to Leipzig, before they host Darmstadt 98, then TSG Hoffenheim at the MEWA ARENA on the following two weekends.