Rouven Schröder: Everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move

Rouven Schröder on…

…the training camp in Mittersill:
I’m here for the first time and I’m really impressed by it all. The hotel with its friendly staff and the food is wonderful. But the most important thing is the training ground, and we’re really satisfied with that too.

…opponents for friendlies:
Zenit St. Petersburg and Shakhtar Donetsk are two teams that will really test us. It’s important that we face two top-class sides after playing Wesel and Hamborn to start pre-season. After that, we will work on a few more specifics before returning to Gelsenkirchen, where we’ll play Vitesse Arnhem a week before the season starts. We’ve just got three games to go before our campaign actually begins.

…possible departures:
There have been several enquiries for some of our players. However, the transfer market is really, really quiet at the moment. Everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move. The first talks have shown that the players are on the market and they understand the situation. We are confident about it all, though. We’re not patient people, however, and we’d rather get transfers sorted earlier on. Communication with the players is important. We’re all working as a team to reach our aims – irrespective of people’s personal plans for the future. Right now, I don’t feel like anything is negatively affecting training.

…trialist Yaroslav Mikhailov:
Zenit St. Petersburg recommended several candidates for a trial to us across various positions. We scouted these candidates ahead of time and based on that, decided on Yaroslav. We’re very happy to have him here with us now. He’s doing well, which we’ve shared with Zenit as well. Our cooperation and communication with Zenit has been very successful so far.

…competition within the squad:
Everyone has to prove themselves. I think that the team can also feel the extra level of competition our new signings are bringing. Everyone has to fight for their spot. We have a certain number of players, and eventually we might make the team somewhat smaller, as the season opener against Hamburg approaches. Everyone wants to be part of the team. It’s nice to see all the players fighting for their spot. The level of competition within the squad is higher and everyone is working hard. For example, Mehmet Can Aydin was injured recently. The way he worked to get back to the pitch as quickly as possible just goes to show how driven he is.