Panic in the streets of Hannover or: "Something is making them sick, Sergeant!"

What a setting: The Maschsee lies quiet and calm, right next to the stadium and training facilities of the town's professional football club, the inhabitants of Hannover are in their daily routine. Then, all of a sudden, cries from the pitch. Another victim, this time it's Schmiedebach. He looks around in agony, then very quickly separated from the group to be treated in the special facilities, located in the basements. He has never been seen ever since...

Hannover have “the pest”. Fans, players, officials say it and mean it. When the team faces Hoffenheim to start the 2nd half of the season, they could be without 9 players: Ya Konan and Haggui are at the African Cup of Nations, plus long term absentees Andreasen (yes, still in our club), Carlitos (yes, he as well) and Hauger show no sign of returning to the squad. To make things worse, the training camp gave us 2-4 more casualties. Schulz and Pinto will definitely miss the match, Schlaudraff and Schmiedebach are a doubt.

So, how will our squad look like on Saturday? Zieler in goal is certain, then a back four of Cherundolo, Pogatetz, Eggimann and Pander/Rausch. It gets more tricky in the midfield area, in my opinion Chahed will need to fill in at DM, alongside hopefully Schmiedebach if he recovers, or if not, then veteran Altin Lala. On the left Pander or Rausch, whoever is not at left back and on the right side quite a few options with Stindl, Stoppelkamp or Royer. Up front Moa is certain, alongside him either Schlaudraff or Sobiech.

Moa: Back in form?

This could be it: Zieler; Cherundolo, Pogatetz, Eggimann, Pander; Stindl, Chahed, (Schmiedebach)/Lala, Rausch; Abdellaoue, (Schlaudraff)/Sobiech.



Things might look different tomorrow, but that's what it looks like for now. On to the opponent: the game against Hoffenheim provided us with a nice start to the season and a 2-1 win by a penalty and a direct free kick. It was a game in which we looked fresh and our tactics still worked perfectly. For Saturday, we will need to adjust, if only because our line-up is not as it was back in August. But as things are, I still expect us to get something from the game. Our bad luck with injuries and decisions has to come to an end somehow, so why not on Saturday? Hoffenheim have the odd injury as well, why not pull ourselves together and get a surprise win? I would be surprised if anyone in Germany was happy with a Hoffenheim win (except Bremen, Wolfsburg and B*******weig fans), so it is in everybody's interest to win that match. And I expect our team to perform well, whoever is on the pitch.

And maybe we'll have new guys coming in this month. I never thought much of transfer gossip, but once a deal is done, I'll be happy to give my fair share of opinion on that as well.

Auf geht's, Hannover!