Three weeks of preparations are over with for the Green-Whites, three weeks of getting the team ready. And it’s half-time of the build-up! WERDER.DE was on hand as head coach Thomas Schaaf...
Three weeks of preparations are over with for the Green-Whites, three weeks of getting the team ready. And it’s half-time of the build-up! WERDER.DE was on hand as head coach Thomas Schaaf...
Three weeks of preparations are over with for the Green-Whites, three weeks of getting the team ready. And it’s half-time of the build-up! WERDER.DE was on hand as head coach Thomas Schaaf described his impressions thus far.
Mr. Schaaf, two of the three training camps have been completed and all the test matches were won and the injury situation has eased off. How satisfied are you with the status of the preparations?
After the Norderney training camp it looked a bit different, but now some players have returned. Everyone has worked very intensively. We increased the tempo. I am satisfied with the work which we have accomplished thus far.
The main stage of the preparations begins on Thursday when the team travels to the training camp in Bad Waltersdorf. Three more test matches are planned with nine days of hard work and the international players are returning – how happy are you about that?
Every stage of the preparations is important. But we are nearing the start of the league so it’s getting interesting. We will see how our World Cup players work into the team. With them we will have a good bit more quality on the training pitch. Marko Marin will start a bit earlier and fly directly to Austria on Thursday. He did not play so much at the World Cup. Mesut Özil, Per Mertesacker and Tim Wiese, who was injured, will start on August 2.
Marko Arnautovic received a lot of attention from the fans and the media in the first weeks of training. How did you receive him the first couple weeks?
I am certain that many did not even know that we acquired him. Nobody knew was to expect from him and now everybody is interested. I can only say that what you saw in training can make one excited. That is exactly the kind of player that Werder are always looking for. A player who brings the team further, a player who has something special.
Werder played with three strikers against Freiburg and Santander. Is that Werder’s new attack plan?
It is another tactical option. We have a lot of offensive players in our squad and we need to look for ways to utilise our roster in the best way. The variation with three strikers is among them and increases our tactical flexibility on the pitch.
