Hummels: Towards the end of the game we failed to execute one counter attack after the other, which led to us defending four on four at times and we had to survive some scary moments. We are still working on finding the right balance.
Question: How would you rate the performance overall?
Hummels: It was a win through mentality, not through class or tactical superiority. It was a heavily contested game.
Question: Did you feel any extra pressure after Leipzig had secured a win in their game on Friday?
Hummels: A little bit yes. But we create this type of pressure for ourselves before every game. The pressure coming from the outside would’ve been even greater if we had failed to win our match. We had luck on our side and avoided that. We are happy now, but not fully satisfied. Apart from Leipzig’s result, this matchday was actually quite good for us. We were able to make up for last weekend a bit and now we aim to keep going.
Question: What is the team lacking still?
Hummels: You can always work on some things, but I think the most crucial aspect of the game today was the fact that we couldn’t free ourselves from their pressure towards the end of the game. We tried to finish our counter attacks really quickly but failed to score a goal, which meant we kept giving the ball away. Suddenly, our back four and the two midfielders were faced with a lot of pressure. We should’ve controlled the game better, but we just aren’t in our best condition right now. We have to accept that some opponents will create more opportunities against us than we would like.
Question: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge announced at the annual general assembly that Philipp Lahm will become Bayern’s sporting director. Do you think he will be very strict in that office?
World Champion Mats Hummels made the difference on Saturday evening during FC Bayern’s 2-1 home victory over Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The centre-back scored his first Bundesliga goal for the record champions and talked about the teams’ form, his goal and the upcoming sporting director Philipp Lahm after the game. DFB.de was there to record all important statements.
Question: Mr. Hummels, how relieved are you on scoring your first Bundesliga goal for FC Bayern, after having struggled to find the target in recent weeks?
Mats Hummels: This win was important for the team and for me personally. It wasn’t a great game to watch, but a hard-earned win with lots of commitment and some mistakes. All in all there was some luck involved, but I think we’ve earned that after hitting the woodwork so often. It’s a good day, but not a perfect one. We know that we are capable of much more than we showed today.
Question: Had you been studying this corner-kick execution with Joshua Kimmich?
Hummels: No, Joshua wasn’t even supposed to take corners. But in the end it was best just to play a cross into the centre. At least I’ve made the best experiences with that. Once the ball is in a central position, about ten metres away from the target, you have a chance to score. We’ve been dangerous from these situations this season already, but we simply haven’t scored the goals, myself included. Great that we finally managed to change that. I think this was our first Bundesliga goal from a set-piece, excluding penalties.
Question: But you do work on set-pieces in training, right?
Hummels: Yes, and we’ve had a bunch of chances from set-pieces, especially myself. I’ve missed a number of chances this season already, which is why this was about time I scored. We have been training set-pieces, but the movement that led to the goal today was rather spontaneous. Sometimes it’s not wrong to just lob the ball into the centre.
Question: How was Bayern’s defensive performance in your point of view?
Hummels: Towards the end of the game we failed to execute one counter attack after the other, which led to us defending four on four at times and we had to survive some scary moments. We are still working on finding the right balance.
Question: How would you rate the performance overall?
Hummels: It was a win through mentality, not through class or tactical superiority. It was a heavily contested game.
Question: Did you feel any extra pressure after Leipzig had secured a win in their game on Friday?
Hummels: A little bit yes. But we create this type of pressure for ourselves before every game. The pressure coming from the outside would’ve been even greater if we had failed to win our match. We had luck on our side and avoided that. We are happy now, but not fully satisfied. Apart from Leipzig’s result, this matchday was actually quite good for us. We were able to make up for last weekend a bit and now we aim to keep going.
Question: What is the team lacking still?
Hummels: You can always work on some things, but I think the most crucial aspect of the game today was the fact that we couldn’t free ourselves from their pressure towards the end of the game. We tried to finish our counter attacks really quickly but failed to score a goal, which meant we kept giving the ball away. Suddenly, our back four and the two midfielders were faced with a lot of pressure. We should’ve controlled the game better, but we just aren’t in our best condition right now. We have to accept that some opponents will create more opportunities against us than we would like.
Question: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge announced at the annual general assembly that Philipp Lahm will become Bayern’s sporting director. Do you think he will be very strict in that office?
Hummels: We can talk about that when it happens. I can definitely see him as a sporting director, but I don’t think he will be the strictest sporting director ever.
