WERDER.DE: Luckily you start again in ten days, the 2nd of January to be precise, as the training camp will begin. What will you work on in Spain to prepare for the second half of the season?
Alexander Nouri: We want to fine tune things, show on the pitch we have improved and become more flexible in our approach and systems. That’s what we’ll work on.”
WERDER.DE: What are your targets for the second half of the season?
Alexander Nouri: “We want to become more stable and be more convincing. Recently, set-backs haven’t unsettled us. We want to be able to change things up during the game, like our system, to challenge our opponents in different ways - we’ll have to work on that.”
WERDER.DE: Something which you have worked on that we have seen in the most recent games is a back-three, one of your favourite systems.
Alexander Nouri: “For me the decisive factor is that we use a system that best fits the skills of the players. When you have four fantastic forward players it’s about putting them on the pitch and it doesn’t matter if that’s a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. For me, principles are more important – what space I want to defend and with how many players, what kind of structure our build-up play has, what space has to be freed up, which spaces I want the players to run into. We played with a back-three with the U23s, it’s always an interesting option.”
WERDER.DE: You have a new player joining in the shape of Thomas Delaney in January which you’ve know about for some time. What do you expect of him, what kind of role will he play?
Alexander Nouri: “I’ve met Thomas twice, he’s a player that has already taken on a lot of responsibility despite being young, and he also has Champions League experience as the captain of Copenhagen. We think he’ll improve us. He has great qualities as an all-round midfielder, he covers a lot of ground between the 18 yard boxes, he can be dangerous in front of goal but also works very hard to regain possession. Thomas is a team player and a real character which will do us good. We look forward to having him.”
WERDER.DE: Your contract with Werder ends in the summer and there’s already a lot of speculation about what will happen. Are you already thinking about this?
Alexander Nouri: “I have great trust in Frank Baumann and those responsible at the club. We’re in close contact, speak often and openly. Therefore, I’m not thinking about it at the moment, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it - the work with the team has priority.