Rensing Sends Warning To Hoffenheim, Leverkusen

The defending champions have made massive strides up the table over the past month and a half and have lifted themselves from the doldrums of mid-table to just one point behind joint-leaders Hoffenheim and Leverkusen.

When pressed on what the dramatic improvement in their form is owed to, Rensing told bundesliga.de: "At the beginning of the season, we always stressed that we needed a bit of time to implement our new strategy. We had a lot of difficulties at the start.

"We have been improving from match to match, after we had laid down the system. Above all, we have made the a lot of progress with our defensive unit and in attack too.

"The return of Franck Ribéry is helping us along a lot. We perform as a team, so united and strong," he added. "Even if we have been set back in recent weeks, we come back better and stronger and can always turn it up a notch. That constitutes our strength at the moment.

"We're in a very good position for the upcoming weeks. The autumn championship can be won.

"Certainly, we've had to keep an eye on how the top teams were playing during the last few weeks. But, if we keep collecting points the way we are now, we don't have to watch the others. We'll finish at the top.

"Obviously, there are more than those two matches that will come up. One has to wait and see if those teams will remain at the top and consistently play well. But as I've said, we don't look at Hoffenheim or Leverkusen, only at ourselves," he concluded.

Derek Wanner, Goal.com