Ahead of their important trip to 1. FSV Mainz on Saturday (18/02), the Werder players are travelling to the Rhineland on Thursday for some intense training. “We will train here as normal on Thursday afternoon and then travel to Mainz,” said Werder coach Alexander Nouri on Tuesday.
“We decided all together to travel one day earlier to Mainz and train there instead,” said Nouri. It is unusual for teams to travel to away games two days before. Nouri argued, “We’re not just doing it for the sake of it, we want to carry out focused and purposeful training in preparation for our next match.”
In particular, Nouri wants to talk to his players individually ahead of their match against the twelfth-placed-side in the Bundesliga. “We’re going to spend more time with one another and, more than anything, try to strengthen each individual player’s confidence and conviction through discussion and dialog.” It is, therefore, likely that only the players who will be involved in the matchday squad on Saturday will travel to Mainz. “We will wait and see what happens over the next two days in training because obviously anything can happen, but the plan is to take a squad of 18 to Mainz,” explained the Werder head coach.
The game will come too early for Florian Grillitsch and Philipp Bargfrede, both of whom only returned to training this week after injury lay-offs. The two midfield players will remain in Bremen over the weekend and train.
