Kahn: We have to give everything for the club
Whenever Bayern hit a rough patch, Oliver Kahn finds himself even more in demand than normal. That was the case again on Friday as a huge throng of reporters, camera teams and photographers gathered for a news conference featuring the club captain. fcbayern.de summarises Kahn's statements.
Oliver Kahn on...
...the first week under Ottmar Hitzfeld:
"We've spent a lot of time on tactics. When things aren't going well, it's important that everyone knows what he has to do. We have to re-establish our discipline and adhere to our tactical instructions. Organisation and discipline are the basis for winning matches again, and regaining our belief before we play Madrid. Ottmar Hitzfeld has a very clear idea of how he wants us to play. It involves organisation, discipline, co-ordination, communication, and getting forward at speed. The training routines are very different from what we're used to, with a large number of new ideas. I've noticed that Ottmar Hitzfeld has moved on. He's not just stood still for three or four years. That indicates his class as a coach, and as a person."
...Bayern's targets this season: "I think even the final doubter has now grasped what's at stake. I don't believe any of us want to appear in the UEFA Cup next season. Every player wants to measure himself against Europe's best. Bayern will always aim to play in the Champions League. We all have to give everything for the club now, and make sure we achieve our minimum target, qualifying for the Champions League. And by the way, it's not all over yet this season. If we hit a winning streak and run up several victories in a row, you never know what might happen in football. But that's all in the future. For now, our job is to show we're solid, and go after third place. Then we can start thinking further ahead."
...the potential in the team: "There's too big a discrepancy between what this team's capable of, and how we've performed recently. It's a mental thing in my opinion,. A team which qualifies for the Champions League last sixteen as winners of a difficult group can definitely achieve a great deal more. We'll be successful again once we tighten up in defence. That's Ottmar Hitzfeld's philosophy, and it's Bayern Munich's philosophy. Whenever we've defended well in the past, we've won a high percentage of our matches. That's what we want to get back to. Then we could achieve a lot."
...his personal development: "I deal with certain things from the past very differently nowadays. The word you're looking for is personal development. I don't need to start anything populist anymore. Smoothing our internal communications and devising sensible solutions is more important to me than charging around like a wild man."
...Lukas Podolski: "Poldi is new at Bayern. It's completely different here compared to Cologne, where he was a hero and treated like a god. In Munich, all the players are at the same level, so it's not easy making the transition. He needs to grasp that and learn from it. I believe he's understood the situation by now, and he's ready to work on himself, just like Bastian [Schweinsteiger] has done. He spent a lot of time alone with me after regular training, working on his shooting. You can see it's paid off, he often scores from long range."
