The SV Werder squad travelled to Spain on the evening of New Year’s Day for their training camp in order to prepare as best they can for the second half of the season. The Green-Whites will be working hard under the sun in southern Spain until 08/01/2018. Head coach Florian Kohfeldt’s side will be staying at the “La Finca Golf & Spa Resort”, near to the small town of Algorfa, 40km south of Alicante on the Costa Blanca.
The majority of the 25-man squad travelled from Bremen airport on Monday evening, whilst some are making their way from their home countries. “Due to the unusual start to training, we have organised the players’ departures out to Spain so that they were able to fly from Bremen or where they were on holiday. All of them are checked in for tonight,” explained Florian Kohfeldt.
Three goalkeepers have made the trip across Europe, namely Jiri Pavlenka, Jaroslav Drobny and Luca Plogmann. As well as debutant Ole Käuper, who looks set to firmly be in the first-team squad by the end of the season, 20-year-old full-back Thore Jacobsen and 19-year-old centre-back Jannes Vollert will also be involved. Both have featured for the Werder U23 side and have also completed several training sessions and friendlies with the first team. Fin Bartels (torn Achilles tendon), Michael Zetterer (rehabilitation following a hand operation) and Justin Eilers (rehabilitation following a cruciate ligament rupture) will not travel with the squad due to their respective injuries.
There are just two weeks until the first Bundesliga fixture of 2018. That is why, according to Kohfeldt, the aim will be to “get back into the swing of things quickly” during the sessions: “Even though the break was short, this will be something different for the players after some intense time with their families and other activities. It will be hugely important that we re-gel as a group again. But I am not concerned about that at all.”
One particular area that the players will work on is their attacking positional play. “We will be focussing on how we want to play with the ball when the opposition go on the defensive. Our defending will also be something that we look at, especially pressing our opponents and playing it out of the back,” said Kohfeldt.
However it is crucial that the players are not overworked. “That is why this will not be a training camp where we do huge sessions in the morning.”
The 25-man squad begin training on Tuesday afternoon at 11:00 CET:
Jiri Pavlenka, Jaroslav Drobny, Luca Plogmann – Luca Caldirola, Robert Bauer, Ludwig Augustinsson, Thomas Delaney, Florian Kainz, Jerome Gondorf, Aron Jóhannsson, Max Kruse, Milos Veljkovic, Ole Käuper, Izet Hajrovic, Zlatko Junuzovic, Niklas Moisander, Ulisses Garcia, Theodor Gebre Selassie, Johannes Eggestein, Lamine Sané, Ishak Belfodil, Maximilian Eggestein, Thore Jacobsen, Philipp Bargfrede und Jannes Vollert.
