David Wagner: I liked our intensity

The team’s efforts during training were made even more impressive due to the fact that they played a friendly yesterday, defeating Osnabrück 5-1. “I liked our intensity as well as our willingness to keep going under the hot conditions and sore bodies. We rewarded ourselves for that with five goals,” said Wagner. “Of course it wasn’t perfect, but there were a lot of positives. We shouldn’t forget that we played this game during a training camp.”

The head coach isn’t paying too much attention to the scoreline. “The result was nice, but that’s not very important in a friendly game. The important thing is how it came about,” explained Wagner. And even more importantly: “Everyone has come through the game healthy – nobody picked up any injuries.”

Three return from injury

In Benjamin Stambouli, Suat Serdar and Amine Harit, three players made their comebacks from injury. The return of Stambouli, who missed a long stretch of games, is something that Wagner was happy about. “Benji helps us a lot both on and off the field, and after such a long time out looks to be finding good form,” reported the coach. Along with Serdar and Harit, the Frenchman has taken part in all of the training camp without injury.

Wagner was also pleased with Steven Skrzybski, who scored a brace. “He was very active and showed good movement, as did the whole team. Each line-up in each half managed to execute our plan effectively, and especially in the second half we worked the space well.”