“We’re looking forward to the Aston Villa friendly” | OneFootball

Ahead of Saturday’s warm-up game, head coach Dino Toppmöller discussed personnel news, his expectations of the match, Jonny Burkardt and Elye Wahi.

… the training camp so far: “The boys have made an excellent impression, despite the heat. We went full throttle right away, the sessions are very intensive and everyone’s getting stuck in. As a coaching team, it’s great fun for us to see that. Now we’re really looking forward to a good friendly against Aston Villa. Let’s get to it.”

… team news going into the friendly: “Jonny Burkardt has a slight cold so he won’t feature on Saturday. Elias Baum has some minor issues with his hamstring, so we’re leaning towards not playing him. The game comes too soon for Tuta and Kaua Santos. We haven’t made a final decision on Arthur Theate yet, but he might get a short run-out. Ellyes Skhiri is doubtful too but we’ll have a meeting with the medical team about him later.”

… his expectations of the match: “We’re going into it in the same way we always do: to try things out. Over the past few days we haven’t really taken the friendly into account in terms of our workload management in training. We’ve pushed the players hard. We want to try some things out and give a few players the chance to show what they can do. Matches are always different to training, so it’s a shame Jonny won’t be available. On the other hand, Paxten Aaronson, for example, will play. The majority of the squad will get some game time because we want to hone our defensive and attacking movement patterns.”

… Jonny Burkardt: “He’s integrated himself really well and took part in every training session apart from today. We’ve got another friendly on Tuesday and then again in Philadelphia. He’ll play in those games, assuming he’s back at 100 percent. On the whole, I get the impression that he’s built a good connection with the team.”

… Elye Wahi: “He’s someone who can provide us with goals – he’s already shown that in his career. He’s also got a good instinct for finding space in behind and he can hold the ball up well, allowing us to push forward. The fact that things haven’t gone the way he or we had hoped is just how it is. He’ll play against Aston Villa. We believe in his potential but he also knows that he needs to improve.”