“Raring to play football again” | OneFootball

Head coach Dino Toppmöller began pre-season training with drive, enthusiasm and a new-look coaching staff, and gave his thoughts on the squad and what he expects from key players.

Dino Toppmöller on ...

… the start of training: “I’m delighted to be back here. My first impression of the boys has been very positive, and they all coped well with the performance tests. Obviously we’d given them all a training and running programme to follow. From the very first second you could tell that they were all raring to play football again. Now we’re starting our preparations together and will go into the new season with a lot of energy.”

… the squad: “In Robin Koch and Willian Pacho, we’re still missing two players, but that’s a privilege too because they were both at major tournaments. On top of that, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya is currently with the France U19s and Aurèle Amende is injured. We’re very pleased because we’re significantly further ahead than we were at the same time last year. Now we want to get to know the new guys and observe how they integrate themselves, how they interact with their new team-mates, and how all the puzzle pieces fit together. Then we’ll sit down together and set ourselves up for the new season in the best possible way. There will be some changes.”

… the coaching staff: “I’m very pleased that such an experienced coach as Xaver Zembrod has joined us. The experience he’s gained at a number of top clubs will help us a lot, particularly with a view to playing a match every three days, as will his calmness and personality. Jan Fießer offers us something different given his age. He has a different profile and complements our coaching team perfectly. It’s a good mix.”

… the football he wants to play this season: “Fundamentally our approach will be to play in a bit more of a compact way. We want to have a clear playing style, get forward more and improve our play in the final third. I’m very positive about that because, apart from Bahoya, all of our attacking players were here on the first day of training, so we can get straight into our movement patterns. Goals win games, and we want to score more goals.” … leaders in the team: “One lesson I learned last season is that I want to challenge and encourage my leading players more. It’s about wanting to win on the pitch - that’s what I want to see, and I want to see the leaders demand that from their team-mates. We have to do that together. It’s not just one player, we have a lot of leaders. If you want to take on responsibility, you have to step up and show you’re up to the task. We’re very relaxed about selecting a captain. We have one or two candidates in mind.”