Rouven Schröder: Competition for places should push the team to perform better

Rouven Schröder on…

…squad planning:

This is dependent on several different things. We said that we don’t want the group to get too big, however during the training camp we saw that we were maybe short of players in certain positions. During a training game for example, assistant coach Sven Piepenbrock had to help out as a right-back. We are continuing to look for signings, but more departures are important.

…Ozan Kabak:                                                  

We have agreed that he won’t start training with us this week. He will keep himself fit with his personal coaching team and he can continue trying to sort out his future.

…Yaroslav Mikhailov:

He’s done really well and integrated quickly into the group. As a result, we discussed further possibilities with Zenit St. Petersburg. We wanted to see him against stronger opponents and he did well in his favoured position against Zenit. It was harder for him against Shakhtar because he played further forward, almost as a second striker. He’s got a lot about him and can be creative too. In a 3-5-2, he can be an attacking box-to-box midfielder and a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1. It’s looking like we’ll be able to sign him on loan for a year. He will increase the competition for places.

…Salif Sané, who had to leave Mittersill early:

We will meet with Salif on Tuesday together with the coach and Dr. Patrick Ingelfinger to speak openly about the results. We will speak about the future with him. That’s normal for a situation like his.

…the competition for places:

There’s a healthy competition for places, which helps to push the team to perform better. Everybody in the squad has a fair chance. The lads have done really well recently. It was great to see how the younger players played in the game against Zenit. They just need to look for and take their chances – anyone who knows Dimitrios Grammozis knows that he doesn’t care about names or reputations.

…the goalkeepers:

Our three goalkeepers have produced some good and great performances so far. There will be a number one, two and three, as always. Ralf Fährmann had a brilliant half against Zenit, making three great saves. Michael Langer talks a lot and also kept a clean sheet. Markus Schubert’s performance against Shakhtar also underlines the quality of our goalkeepers. Nevertheless, things could change regarding our personnel in this position – just like all others – because we cannot forget about our budget.