Head coach Ole Werner and his team came together on Monday afternoon to kick off training on the pitch ahead of the new season, having already successfully completed performance tests over the weekend. The Werder boss was pleased with the first session with his charges and hopes that, with hard work, the team can pick up where they left off at the end of last season.
Players returning to the training ground at the Weserstadion signalled the end of a long summer break, one Ole Werner also used to recharge the batteries. “I spent a lot of time in Schleswig-Holstein with family and friends and saw a lot of familiar faces – that did me a lot of good. It was a nice and long summer break, but I was also very pleased to see some old and some new faces back in the changing toom.”
The SVW coach’s whistle at 3pm marked the start of 2024/25 pre-season training, with Keke Topp, goalkeeper Markus Kolke and permanently signed loanee Skelly Alvero all involved – fourth summer signing Marco Grüll is still on holiday following his involvement at EURO 2024, much like Romano Schmid and Milos Veljkovic. Oliver Burke was also working individually after returning from his loan spell. “Burkey was doing solo work today because he’s coming back off an injury he suffered in England. Otherwise, everyone is fit and healthy, and the initial impression from training was good. The guys are up for it and there was a good dynamic, so that fills us with motivation,” said Werner.
After finishing ninth last season with 42 points, the gaffer is hoping his side can kick on from a solid second half of the campaign: “We want to continue on the path we were on towards the end of last season. It’s important that you have an identity as a team. For me, it’s about continuing to build on the playing style. We want to work on having more clarity in certain aspects of it during pre-season. Set pieces will also be a topic where we’re aiming to improve.”
The first chance to implement those ideas after a long week of training comes for the Green-Whites on Sunday, 14th July with the friendly in Verden (14:00 CEST). “We want to build a basis for the upcoming season. You will do serious amounts of groundwork in a long training week like this one,” said Werner, who wants to give every player a chance to showcase themselves, including youngsters Joel Imasuen, Mats Heitmann, Levi Wagner (all U23s) and Wesley Adeh (U19s). “We have some young players involved, where we’re looking to see what their prospects for game time are. Everyone has the chance to stake their claim.”
