The Mainz coach is certainly no stranger to difficult situations. When Bo Henriksen arrived a year and a half ago, the club were up to their necks in trouble. With 13 matchdays remaining, Mainz were in 17th spot, and the goal was to make up a nine-point gap to avoid relegation.
The turnaround that began as a rescue mission ended with Mainz securing sixth place to qualify them for European competition for the first time since 2016.
Now the emotional Dane has to turn things around again to stop a series of four successive Bundesliga defeats. However, the current situation for the 50-year-old is not comparable to when he took office.
"Of course, it's not the same situation as today. We have played eight of 34 games," explained the coach at the press conference before the home game against Werder Bremen on Saturday afternoon.
Nevertheless, Mainz seem unsettled by the current results. They concede too many goals and look harmless up front. But according to the Danish coach, it doesn't take much to turn things around: "We have to come into the box more often and we also have to defend better. Looking at the table, we should be in tenth spot. We only have four points, but normally we should have 10.3 points."
For Henriksen, there is currently a lack of “decisions, power, and courage” in Mainz. "It's small things, but a lot of small things," the coach added.
In the current situation, solving many small problems in one swoop is like a mammoth task. After the defeat in the German Cup against VfB Stuttgart, the pressure certainly hasn't exactly eased on Henriksen.
But Henriksen would like to free his players from this pressure: "You have to be relaxed, be free. This pressure is my job, not the players' job. It's so important that they play as if they were five years old. They have to have fun. I know that's hard now. If we think about making mistakes, we'll make them too."