Of course, at FSV Mainz 05 they wouldn't mind if SC Freiburg had a bad day on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).

However, even if this were to happen, there was no automatic way for the Rheinhessen to win.

Bo Svensson should also convey that to his players.

Because apart from the fact that the people of Breisgau hardly ever have bad days, “their bad level is still very high.

But when we put our game on the pitch, it's not easy for them against us either."

Embarrassing performance

However, the 05ers only managed to implement their game idea in rare phases of the current season, despite their decent eighth place in the table with eleven points.

At best, it had little to do with the football that the coach sees, that his players also want to play and that they have often demonstrated over the past year and a half.

But if you thought it couldn't get any worse, the team proved the worst during the international break when they stumbled into a 5-2 friendly defeat against second division club Karlsruher SC with an embarrassing performance.

To have been "far away from being suitable for the Bundesliga", Svensson certified not only, but above all, his defensive line.

The only player he liked was Delano Burgzorg, suggesting the Dutchman, suspended for the game against Hertha BSC for disciplinary reasons, understood what he was lacking.

The coach has so far been dissatisfied with the striker's commitment during the training sessions.

Against KSC, however, he showed “that he has plans.

And he now knows that, despite individual quality, it's difficult to survive in the Bundesliga without the daily work."

Sounds like the fast attacker has better chances in the fight for minutes from now on.

Marcus Ingvartsen and even longer Marlon Mustapha will miss this eighth match day – the latter had to undergo an operation after suffering a horse kiss in the Hertha game because a lot of fluid had run into the muscle.

He still walks on crutches.

Instead, Jonathan Burkardt returns to the team.

Svensson says he is not yet pain-free after the flesh wound on his foot that Hoffenheim's Kevin Akpoguma inflicted on him.

“That would also be very surprising.

But he trained and it looked good.”

Even though last season's eleven-time goalscorer went empty-handed in this round, Burkardt has an important role to play in Svensson's strategy.

"Jonny brings the pace, is very good at the start and is able to make other players better.

With the way he plays, he influences every phase of our game.

He's become a key player and it hurts us when he's out."

He also believes that the striker, who emerged from the club's own offspring, can play a leading role within the squad.

Burkardt had announced that he wanted to take over one during the training camp in Grassau, among other things.

"Jonny shouldn't change fundamentally in terms of his personality," says Svensson, who had already coached him as a teenager.

“But if you have already experienced something in your early 20s” – and that has been the case for the native of Darmstadt at the latest since winning the U-21 European Championship – “you can also think about whether there is more to it than responsibility only for oneself, but for the whole.

I don't push him into that role, but I'm happy to help."