Tough test, useful insight

Match reaction

Werder’s defence gave their guests too much space, but it went better in attack (Photo: nordphoto).
First Team
Monday, 08.08.2016 / 12:08

The friendly match against Chelsea ended in a 4-2 defeat. Two weeks before the start of the competitive season, Werder’s intensive friendly against the Londoners who kick off their league campaign this weekend, gave Viktor Skripnik and his coaching staff a lot of useful insight. "This match was an important step for us in our learning process. We played with a new 4-2-3-1 system for the first time. Due to a number of injured players, we were obviously missing a bit of stability”, says Skripnik after the final whistle.

WERDER.DE has collected the thoughts of the Green-Whites after the friendly against Chelsea.

On the match:

Lennart Thy: “It was a good test against a very strong London side, in which we were able to gather a lot of useful insight – some positive and some negative. These are things that we can work on over the remaining two weeks. Of course, not everything will work out, but I think we played some good stuff going forward and had some good chances.”

Clemens Fritz: “We were not consistent enough in the first half, we stood off them too much and made it too easy for Chelsea. It should never be the case that we are 2-0 down after nine minutes. We had a few good passing moves going forward and had some good chances on goal.”

Max Kruse played his first match in a Werder shirt after returning to the club (Photo: nordphoto).

Max Kruse: “Chelsea are the sort of opposition against which we are not expected to be flying forward. Nevertheless, we did have one or two good spells of play. We had chances to get the equaliser throughout the match. Something was missing for us in the link between attack and defence, and we need to work on that.”

Viktor Skripnik: “We are obviously disappointed with conceding the goals, but the game showed that we can put pressure on even the best opposition. In the first half, we deserved to be drawing 2-2 more than Chelsea deserved the 3-1 lead. Nevertheless, we went into the break two goals behind. Things did not work out quite as well as we would have liked defensively. Due to a number of injuries, we were operating with a makeshift back four. Niklas Moisander has to be braver in the situations that led to us conceding goals, but he has only been in team training for one and a half weeks.

On the remaining preparation:

Clemens Fritz: “The first matchday is decisive. I have been through some exceptional pre-seasons in my career and then seen the team blow it on the first day. We need to continue to focus on preparing for the cup and the start of the bundesliga.”

Max Kruse: “The results of the friendlies are not that important, but obviously we always want to win and we should go into these pre-season games very determined. Without question, we displayed a few shortcomings today. We will work on that. In terms of fitness, we are doing very well. We can now predominantly work on tactical discipline in our final training camp next week, in order to progress in the cup against Lotte in two weeks time. That is very important.”

Viktor Skripnik: “We will work on those four conceded goals in the training camp in Herzlake. We definitely need to improve on that. The usual things will also be on the schedule.”

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