Showing courage and self-confidence

Clemens Fritz gives his weekly update

Clemens Fritz spoke to WERDER.TV about topics around the club on Monday (photo: WERDER.DE).
First Team
Monday, 16.11.2020 / 15:13

The international break is almost over and the Werder squad are back in training at Osterdeich to prepare for the tough challenge away at FC Bayern at the weekend. Clemens Fritz, head of scouting and football at Werder, gave his thoughts to WERDER.DE as training got underway again.

Clemens Fritz on...

…the squad: "Niclas Füllkrug is continuing to train individually to recover from his injury. We’ll have to wait for a few more days before we can say whether he’ll feature at the weekend. I can’t say anything specific yet. The same applies to Milos Veljkovic. Davie Selke, Ömer Toprak and Maxi Eggestein took part in full team training today, and they were joined by Ludwig Augustinsson and Felix Agu, both of whom are back.”

…the corona situation: “It’s an ever-present topic at the moment and we’re taking it very seriously. Maintaining the hygiene measures is still our top priority. Almost every club in the Bundesliga has been affected at this point which really shows how close to home the pandemic is. That’s why it’s more important than ever that we continue to implement the guidelines properly. Of course, we all hope that we’ll be able to continue to play and that the numbers will fall at some point, but first and foremost, it's all about health and keeping people safe.”

…the friendly defeat to St. Pauli: “The game didn’t pan out as we were hoping, especially in terms of the intensity and the distance run. We made some mistakes and were mentally out of the game for a while, and that’s something we’re all frustrated about. I don’t think anybody went home on Friday satisfied with our performance. But we play friendlies like this to give players who haven’t been getting as many minutes some game time. There’s naturally a different atmosphere compared to competitive games. We’re there to try out new things, but I don’t think we can be satisfied on the whole.”

…next weekend’s opponents: “I can speak from personal experience on this. In the end, it’s just another Bundesliga game and a normal week of preparation. We’re certainly aware of the difficulty of the fixture and the quality that they have, but we want to be courageous and go into the game united, as a team. One think is clear though, you have to be at your best to catch Bayern out. But what’s to say we won’t have a good day? We’ll try to bring our A game on Saturday and believe in our strengths.”

…the poor run of form against Bayern: “The most important thing is not to make a streak like this into a big issue; it’s crucial to keep looking to the future and not the past in situations like these. We need to pay attention to what’s ahead and show courage and self-confidence. We haven’t lost a single game in the last few weeks which has certainly given that a boost. We need to make the most of our opportunities, that’s the key. We’re the underdogs, so we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain at the end of the day.”

…the absence of Maximilian Eggestein: "He never stops running, which you see week after week. He closes down well and is a very good passer of the ball. He plays with a lot of intelligence which is a big part of the reason he’s so integral to our structure, which you could see we were lacking against St. Pauli.”

...Felix Agu: "He’s returned to full team training now. He came back from quarantine in surprisingly good shape and was obviously keeping himself fit at home. In general, he’s a guy who’s physically strong. It was a long and difficult time for him, so we’re all very happy to have him back.”

…Johannes Eggestein: “Jojo has settled in really well, he feels very comfortable. His performances speak for themselves – he has already scored some goals and got some assists. He is an unbelievably valuable player for Linz. I think that it will do him a lot of good to keep getting match practice and experience in Austria. We remain in constant contact and we hope that he keeps moving forward.”

…Luca Plogmann: “It’s not easy for Luca, suffering such a bad injury. The operation went well and the plan is for him to be treated by the physiotherapists here in Bremen in the next few weeks. Then we’ll see what the next steps are for him.”

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