We spoke about that quite frequently. We tried to give ourselves the chance for a fresh start with a lot of different things, different football things. [We] had kind of a new start, we agreed on that in the week, I can’t remember which week it was exactly but we had eight or nine days for training between the games and we wanted to use that time to start the new season already, not knowing where it would lead us to but just didn’t want to waste more time. And it was a breath of fresh air for all of us, not only the players but for the coaches as well, and since then things changed.

We work on different subjects, the basic principles stay: it’s about intensity, it’s about counter-pressing, it’s about generally intensive football, these kinds of things. We want to control the game differently, we want to protect our game differently, in a different formation, we want to build up differently. There are so many things we are different [in] and, to be honest, it’s really good fun for us to think about it, to work on it, to create something new for us. And that’s what we did. And then the results came in, that’s for sure no complete coincidence. We know that we needed luck in moments as well, luck we maybe didn’t have in other games before. But now we are in the situation we are in and now we have three more games to play and still the same, we already prepare the next season but knowing that this season [there] is a lot to play for and that’s exactly what we do.

Sometimes you need to change big things to get a turnaround. Most of the time it’s only little things but sometimes you have to change big things. And I think when a coach is in for seven-and-a-half years that’s pretty rare; usually in that time some clubs have three, four, five coaches, which is obviously not great but then that means it’s always new. We were really successful until last year with a specific way, it’s not that we did always the same stuff but it was a way of play we knew about, that it’s successful and works out for us. And all of a sudden it didn’t work out for us. It was always clear that we have to change things but that was at least one good thing of this season: we had a good reason to change things. Imagine we would have changed everything after we nearly won four trophies and start a new season and then we play bad – that would have been really tricky. And that’s why sometimes you need these kinds of moments and we needed it obviously. How I said, when a coach is in that long, you have to change things anyway and in the right moment. That’s why I said I think we caught the right moment maybe for this season a bit late – we will see that – but in general I think it was the right moment.