Coach Marco Rose of Bundesliga club RB Leipzig has set clear guidelines ahead of their appearance in the first main round of the DFB Cup. "Essen is emotion, tradition," said the 47-year-old ahead of Saturday's visit to third-division side Rot-Weiß Essen (3.30pm/Sky), "but it's still the DFB Cup. We are RB Leipzig and we want to progress to the next round."
Rose described the visit to the Hafenstrasse stadium, which will not be completely sold out as over 1,000 seats in the visitors' block will remain empty, as a "tough task". "We have to expect a lot of emotion. We've watched the opponents, of course," said Rose and praised RWE coach Christoph Dabrowski, with whom he completed his coaching A-certificate: "You can see a really clear idea."
Gulacsi remains number one
In the Ruhrpott, Rose still has to do without a number of injured and ailing players such as Xaver Schlager and Christoph Baumgartner. That's why new signing Antonio Nusa can hope to start three days after signing. "We don't have that much choice in that position on Saturday. Antonio is fit, played 66 minutes last Sunday," said Rose about the Norwegian new signing from Belgian top club FC Brugge.
Due to the injury list, there could still be changes to the squad, according to Rose: "We'll see what else the market has to offer. But only if it makes sense."
There is already clarity in goal. "We've elevated Peter Gulacsi back to the number one role," said Rose, "Piet will be in goal - because it's the first game." The new number two, Maarten Vandevoordt, on the other hand, will have to be patient. "We will find ways to give Marten playing time," Rose said of the Belgian, who moved to Leipzig from RC Genk in the summer.
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