“We’ve worked on every aspect” | OneFootball

At his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Köln, Albert Riera spoke about his squad, training this week and their upcoming opponents.

With the international break now behind them, the Eagles will be back in action this weekend with a home tie in the Bundesliga against 1. FC Köln at Deutsche Bank Park on Sunday evening (kick-off 17:30 CEST).At the press conference ahead of the match, head coach Albert Riera spoke about…… the work he has put in during this week of training: “We’ve worked on every aspect. Football is a combination of everything, and I give each aspect a priority. Dead balls, approach, defence, attack… Together with the players, we’ve worked on scoring more goals and letting fewer in. Especially against a low block, we need to be more dynamic, play more quickly and make things happen. We’ll see how well we manage to put this into practice on Sunday.”

… the consequences of the defeat to Mainz: “Yesterday was the first time that we trained with the full squad. We lost in Mainz and no-one was happy with that. We had a meeting to discuss where we went wrong but also have a look at what we did well, and that helps us to win matches. I told them that we need to do certain things better. I don’t just look at results but also at the way we play, and it wasn’t all bad against Mainz.” 

… the possibility of playing with twin strikers: “That option is there. We have three possibilities. In Mainz, we played 45 minutes with two strikers. We also need to see what our opponents do.”

… his players: “We need to find solutions for situations where we didn’t do too well. Against Mainz, we made three mistakes in defence and conceded two goals from them. We lost the match – Mainz didn’t win it. Everyone out on the pitch knows what they have to do and what they need to improve on, up front and at the back.” 

… squad availability: “Kaua Santos, Rasmus Kristensen, Nnamdi Collins and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya won’t be available. Jean-Mattéo should be back next week but Nnamdi will be out for longer.” 

… Mario Götze: “He’s so good in training, as is everyone else. The same can be said of Timmy, Mo and plenty of others.”

… Köln having a new coach: “René Wagner was No.2 beforehand, so the situation hasn’t really changed that much. We’ve analysed Köln on the basis of their recent matches and we assume that they’ll only have made minor changes.”