Florian Kohfeldt on the game: The game against Villarreal is the final rehearsal before the DFB-Pokal game against VfR Wormatia Worms on Saturday (18.08.2018, 15:30 CEST). “It will be the first time we will take an upcoming game into consideration in terms of our training workload this pre-season“, says Florian Kohfeldt. The head coach wants to send an energised and fresh team onto the field. “Their combination play is very strong, they are versatile and play an aggressive pressing game. This will be a true test of our ability.” The closer the first competitive game, the more effort and focus the boys have to put in, unlike the other friendlies. “Slowly but surely it’s the result that starts to take precedent. This is not an experiment anymore,” clarified the Werder head coach.
The Werder head coach on squad news: Stefanos Kapino will be out for a while with a thigh injury and will not be available. Yuya Osako, Sebastian Langkamp and Ludwig Augustinsson, who all ended the training sessions early, have been given the all clear for the game. Martin Harnik has a slight back problem, but there is a possibility that he could feature in the game on Saturday. However, Kevin Möhwald and Jaroslav Drobny, who both did not travel to the training camp, will not be available for selection on Saturday and are to return to full training next week. In regard to playing times on Saturday, Kohfeldt explains: “It will no longer be the case that every player gets the same amount of playing time. The style of play will be similar to what we want to play this coming season”.