All about the next opponent: Interview with St. Pauli fan Eli | OneFootball

As the year comes to a clo­se, Second Divi­si­on cham­pi­ons FC St. Pau­li visit the Neckar­sta­di­on. Eli gives us some insights into how things are loo­king for the Ham­burg club.

With the Red Stri­pe: Hel­lo Eli, thank you for taking the time. How satis­fied are peo­p­le at St. Pau­li with the cur­rent sea­son?

Eli: Rela­tively. All in all, we’­re doing quite well and have rea­li­stic chan­ces of stay­ing in the league. The mood is gene­ral­ly posi­ti­ve every weekend, even if we lose. The big­gest cri­ti­cism from me and other St. Pau­li fans is that we don’t have a good stri­ker. Egge­stein is decent in build-up play, but abso­lut­e­ly no thre­at in front of goal.

St. Pau­li had to hire a new coach at the begin­ning of the sea­son, as pro­mo­ti­on coach Hür­ze­l­er moved to Eng­land. How satis­fied are peo­p­le with Bles­sin so far?

I wasn’t very con­vin­ced at first, espe­ci­al­ly after matches like the one against Hal­le. But now I’m very satis­fied. In my opi­ni­on, he’s get­ting the best out of the cur­rent squad and isn’t afraid to try some­thing new.

St. Pau­li has one of the best defen­ses in the league. With 19 goals con­ce­ded, they are on par with BVB, Mainz, and Frank­furt. Why is that?

I think you defi­ni­te­ly can’t attri­bu­te it to just one play­er. We have Vasi­lij, a real­ly, real­ly good goal­kee­per. Then ahead of him, we’ve got Mets, Wahl (now Neme­th), and OF COURSE the foot­ball god Eric Smith, who in my opi­ni­on is our best play­er. They’re all not only solid defen­si­ve­ly but also indis­pensable for the build-up play.

Offen­si­ve­ly, howe­ver, the team is very weak. Along­side Bochum, St. Pau­li has the fewest goals in the league. How do you explain that?

Well, we’re sim­ply miss­ing, and sor­ry to say it like this, a com­pe­tent stri­ker. Like I said, Egge­stein is okay in the build-up play but no thre­at in front of goal. And when someone like Eli­as Saad, who isn’t a stri­ker but has scored a few goals thanks to his indi­vi­du­al bril­li­ance, is inju­red, then you can’t expect much.

Bles­sin was born in Bad Cannstatt and also play­ed for VfB. Do you think this will be a spe­cial match for him as well?

Cer­tain­ly, and the atmo­sphe­re in Stutt­gart is sup­po­sed to be quite lively 😉 I’d have loved to go, but I’m not in Ger­ma­ny!

Who is your St. Pau­li play­er of the sea­son?

Wit­hout a doubt, Eric Smith. Defen­si­ve­ly rock-solid, indis­pensable in the build-up, and he’s also got quite a bit to offer offen­si­ve­ly 😉 Gree­tings to the BVB fans (despi­te the defeat).

How would you descri­be St. Pauli’s style of play?

Curr­ent­ly, lower Bun­des­li­ga level. With a good stri­ker, I see poten­ti­al for a mid-table finish if we can retain the squad and make some tar­ge­ted impro­ve­ments.

Whe­re do you think FCSP will end up at the end of the sea­son?

I’d be very hap­py with any­thing abo­ve 16th place.

Final­ly, your pre­dic­tion and fee­ling for the match?

I always belie­ve, so I’ll say a mira­cle hap­pens, and the game ends 2–1 for FC Sankt Pau­li.

Note: This inter­view was trans­la­ted from Ger­man via ChatGPT

Pic­tu­re: © Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images