Alessandro Schöpf: I look forward to every training session

“I look forward to every training session and every game. It is simply an amazing feeling to be able to work with the team against after a long time out,” said Schöpf, who had been training individually in recent weeks. Therefore, the Royal Blue said, “I already feel at a really good level of fitness.”

For Schöpf, his long time out through injury has been very frustrating. Schöpf does not believe there were any bad intentions from Hertha defender Karim Rekik, who fouled him on the 25th January in the Olympiastadion. However, Schöpf did admit that it was a shame to have not received an apology from the Dutch man for the hard tackle which caused a ligament tear in the Schalke midfielder’s left knee. “I’m not bearing any grudges,” said Schöpf. “Negativity always gets you down and doesn’t help. I had to accept the situation, so after a few days I just had to stay positive and look ahead.“

Everyone has to take responsibility

The future brings a lot of new things. “New coach, new sporting director, new players. We all want to take a step forwards together and work towards continuity,” said Schöpf and explained that every player has to take responsibility to ensure the upcoming season is a better one than the previous. “We want to start the new season with a lot of energy. Last season, we started very negatively. We want to avoid that this time,” said the midfielder.

The two remaining friendlies on Friday (02/08) are a good chance to start the season with some momentum. “Against Alanyaspor and Villarreal CF we want to fine tune our philosophy even further. We want to be offensively orientated and transition quickly after winning possession,” said Schöpf. The kind of role Schöpf will have under Wagner will be determined over time. “There are several options, I’m a versatile player and want to help the team to the best of my ability.”