De Vrij: “We have the energy to start this tournament in the best possible way" | OneFootball

LOS ANGELES – Stefan de Vrij, speaking from the UCLA campus where Inter are training ahead of their Club World Cup debut against Monterrey, answered questions from the media.

Stefan, how is it going? Only few days have gone by since the final in Munich, how has this experience been going so far here in LA? "Some of us have joined the team later, as we were on international duty. We want to leave all of that behind us. The others had also some days off, now we look ahead and we are really motivated to start off in this competition."

I don't want to mention any differences with the past, what was the factor that has impressed you the most about the new coach? "The fact that he's very determined, he knows what he wants and can really pass on to us his ideas and his principles that are also ours, as we've been playing together for a long time. I had a really good impression of the coach. It's only been two days however, so we're just at the start."

The coach himself said this is the end of a season that started back in August, how do you find the energies to start competing in such a big tournament? "I'm full of energy personally, everyone is different, but what I see among the team during training is a lot of positive thinking, the will to improve and work hard. We're eager to compete. I'm really confident. It's been only 15 days if you actually think about it."

What explanation did you give yourself for how it went? "I've just arrived here so, we haven't really had a chance to talk and I can say that the past is in the past. It's behind us now and we look ahead. As we said before it was a really bad defeat for us, but let's not forget about the journey we've been on and the season we had, even if we did not win any trophy yet, we've enjoyed many positive moments and we need to continue to improve and try to get back to our winning habits."

Stefan how do you approach such a different competition, filled with teams that display different styles of football, what precautions must be taken to face them? "Our team is really experienced, the Clubs are new for us, that's true, we don't know the opponents that well, but we have all played internationally so the approach is more or less the same. I think that first of all it's important to start the group stage well, and to go through, then it will all be a knock-out type of football."

Can you tell us about Inter's latest two signings? There's a lot of curiosity around Sucic, and Luis Henrique, what can you tell us about them from the first training sessions? "They've made a good impression, Luis Henrique is a skillful player, fast, really good at dribbling and technical. I'm sure he will help us. The same goes for Sucic, I saw him play for Croatia, he's a technical player, with good running, he's good in duels, so I'm sure these are excellent purchases and now they just need to settle in. I'm sure it will all go well."

Looking at tomorrow's game, which is definitely crucial to approach this new competition with your best foot forward, I want to ask you if we look at Monterrey what can represent a threat? "They have many qualities, we've seen that. They also have players that we know well for their time in Europe, such as Sergio Ramos, Corona and Ocampos who played in Italy, Canales too, so they have a lot of technical skills and qualities, we are preparing for it."

The coach was a great defender, how does this aspect come in to help? "Of course, maybe he was more of a wingback, he was also a centre back in the Netherlands, he was an exceptional player. He had a successful career so I'm sure he can teach us a lot."