Millerntor-Stadion: Home of FC St Pauli(credit:
Wikipedia)
Hannover 96 coach Mirko Slomka has backed Jan Schlaudraff to fill the void left by an injury to Didier Ya Konan.
Top goalscorer Ya Konan has been ruled out of today’s trip to St Pauli with a knee injury, and angered coach Slomka by seeking medical advice from a doctor in Augsburg this week without consulting his manager.
But while conceding his absence is a major blow to his side in their pursuit of European football, Slomka believes Schlaudruff will prove to be a capable deputy at Millerntor-Stadium.
He said: “We don't need to even go into how much this loss (of Ya Konan) hurts us.
“But Schlaudraff has everything that our style of play needs. He is quick, clever and has even developed a willingness to run more.
“Not everybody in the Bundesliga can score such a goal as the one he scored to make it 1-0 against Kaiserslautern.”
Hannover cruised to a 3-0 win over Kaiserslautern in their most recent Bundesliga outing, while St Pauli were beaten 2-0 by league leaders Borussia Dortmund.
Watch St Pauli v Hannover 96 live at 365, kicking off at 14.30 GMT.