Teams | August 24, 2020 at 04:50 PM

Back to work at Schenckendorffplatz!

After five days of rest and recovery, the boys in blue and white returned to pre-season training at Schenkendorffplatz on Monday (24.08.20). A carefully planned week lies ahead.

The Hertha players are back in training! The fifth week of pre-season got underway on Monday morning, as Bruno Labbadia’s men completed a two-hour session at Schenkendorffplatz. The players were given some time off to recover after three intense weeks of training. Ondrej Duda, Matheus Cunha and co. appeared well-rested and motivated once they got back out on the pitch and it was clear that the players were eager to get on the ball once again. “The players needed the days off - they won’t progress without the necessary recovery time. The lads found it a little tough at the start, but they soon got back into the swing of things. I have absolutely no doubt that we will benefit from this rest in the coming weeks,” said Labbadia, recognizing the energy of his fresh players.

Playing styles and communication – a pair of players miss out

After a lengthy warm-up, including jumping exercises, the footballs came out once again. The squad worked on playing styles and situations with attacking overloads on a pitch with small goals, before moving on to play an 11-a-side game. Labbadia was treated to some impressive passing from his players, yet the head coach interrupted the game numerous times to demand more communication. “We don’t have any time to lose. We will miss out on almost two weeks of training during the upcoming international break, so we need to be direct with the players. We are going to provide them with lots of input,” said Labbadia. Almost the entire Hertha squad took part in the session, with the exceptions of Luca Netz and Pascal Köpke, who both did some individual fitness training, as well as Lukas Klünter (stomach bug) and Dedryck Boyata (Achilles tendon issue). “Things don’t look too bad for Lukas. Dedryck did something to his Achilles tendon in the dressing room, when he was under no stress. We will have to wait and see how quickly he gets over it – I don’t know whether he will able to join us in Amsterdam,” said Labbadia of the club’s current injury situation.

An intense week lies ahead of the squad following the return to training. After another session on Monday afternoon, the Old Lady travels to Amsterdam to face Dutch record-champions Ajax in a friendly match on Tuesday (25.08.20, 19:00 CEST). The blue-and-whites will be back in training on Wednesday following their return to Berlin, with another two sessions scheduled for Thursday. There will be one more session on Friday before Saturday’s double-header against PSV Eindhoven at Schenkendorffplatz (29.08.20, 15:00 and 17:15 CEST). “We will try to give minutes to as many players as possible during the matches against Ajax and PSV. We want to take what we’ve worked on in training in recent weeks and use it against quality opposition. We need to try and put in a great shift this week,” said Labbadia, with one eye on the international break that will interrupt the upcoming schedule.

by Hertha BSC