Henriksen both pleased and perturbed with Kohr: “Five yellow cards in six matches is insane.”

Speaking on his team’s rather disappointing start to the season results-wise earlier in the week, FSV Mainz 05 head-coach Bo Henriksen cited a lack of a discipline as one reason why his squad had only grabbed a possible five points from five match-days. The round five defeat against Heidenheim left Mainz chasing the game for the second consecutive week after defender Andreas Hanche-Olsen was sent off early. 

“In football and in life in general, it’s important not to think too much,” Henriksen remarked at a pre-match press conference, “We were really bad because we thought about things too much. We have to do better. We have to free our minds. We can’t play so long with ten men against eleven in every game.” 

Henriksen specifically referenced versatile midfielder Dominik Kohr. The rough-and-tough German – who proudly goes by the moniker “hard” Kohr – picked up four yellow cards in five games and was lucky not to be sent off after provoking Augsburg striker Samuel Essende in the away win on match-day four. The FSV trainer confirmed that he had spoken to Kohr about the issue. 

Mainz secured their second win of the 2024/25 Bundesliga campaign last night; again bagging all three points away from home during their visit to Hamburg’s FC St. Pauli. While Henriksen reserved praise for Kohr’s work filling in for the suspended Hanche-Olsen along the back line, he couldn’t help but take rueful note of the fact that Kohr incurred yet another booking for a hard challenge on Elias Saad in the 88th. 

”I think he [Kohr] played well,” Henriksen told the Sky mics last night, “It was a good performance and he was more clever than last week. He’s a good player and important for us, but five yellow cards in six matches is insane.” 

“The first half wasn’t very good,” Henriksen summed up when discussing the team’s performance as whole, “but the second half was better. I’m satisfied even if it didn’t exactly conform to plan.”