Farke on his future, a need for ambition and an injury crisis

In a lengthy discussion which offered some uncertainty on his future at the club, Farke said: "When I signed the contract here three years ago we spoke about the goals, what we want to achieve and I have to say my mission is fulfilled, and my job is done here, and there's nothing to add anymore. So all the boxes that we wanted to tick are ticked."

Farke, who has one year left on his contract, added: "It's important for the club that we sit together and sit in a trustful atmosphere to speak about new goals. This period is done. We have to speak about new goals, the way we want to achieve it, the processes and then before I speak about the future, the club has to decide where we want to be, what are the new goals. This is what we'll do right now internally. Then we'll see what the outcome is."

He elaborated: "I'm ambitious, I want to something to play for, and I'm not the right choice if it's about like maintaining somehow a status quo. If you want someone who just does something more of the same, then it's definitely not me."

In point to the need to now be ambitious, Farke said: "Everyone knows about how amazing this fan base is, how huge this club is, how much potential there is. That's a part of the truth, but the second part of the truth is also that we as a club had exactly one good season in the last 25 years in the Premier League, the first season after Marcelo's promotion, and we missed [the chance] to build on it. Right now we have played just a second good season on this level, and for me it's important that we don't repeat the same mistake, we have to develop, and we have to evolve. If you want to be good enough on this level, you have to evolve."

Farke expressed his "heartfelt gratitude" to the club, stating they "trusted me to come in a difficult moment into this club and to lead this club into, hopefully, a better future."

On team news, Farke outlined significant injury issues: "Ilia Gruev is out for the season, we spoke about this. Noah Okafor, he's not available for this game. Gabriel Gudmundsson and Jayden Bogle are not available for this game, Facundo Buonanotte [on loan from Brighton] is not eligible to play."

He continued: "We also have Pascal Struijk not in training yet after the last game. Big doubt if he's available [for the weekend]. Ethan Ampadu struggling with illness currently, major doubt and was not in training today so a few question marks but so far we have always found a solution to send a competitive side on the pitch and this is also what we will try to do in our last home game."

Despite such injury issues, which he described as "the most difficult situation we had during the whole season", Farke said: "We want to finish as strong as possible and with the best possible result. I back my whole group and I back my players also in these circumstances still to deliver one more top performance here at home and then also to be competitive against a really strong side who is fighting for Europe. But in this game we definitely need our supporters to carry us a little bit but we'll work on solutions to be competitive."