Preparing to face the record champions

Berlin – Striving for success and wanting to compete with the very best: these are two things that every footballer seeks to work towards on a daily basis. The same is true for the Herthaner, who started a new week of training today. The team are preparing to face record champions Bayern München – hot off the back of their fourth trophy of the year – on Sunday evening (18:00 CEST). The Blue-Whites started with an 85-minute long session on Monday to prepare for the weekend. “Bayern have been phenomenal in past years, particularly last season. The fact that they have consistently been able to deliver such strong performances points to their mental strength and quality. In recent years, Bayern haven’t just been a strong side, they’ve been extremely dominant,” said head coach Bruno Labbadia. 

Two unavailable, two work individually and five given rest

Only 15 outfielders were present for the start of the training week, in addition to goalkeepers Alexander Schwolow and Rune Jarstein. Arne Maier (knee) and Javairo Dilrosun (thigh) missed out through injury, while Nils Körber, Marton Dárdai, Luca Netz, Jessic Ngankam and Daishawn Redan were all given the day off after playing in the 1-0 U23 victory against Chemnitzer FC on Sunday (27/09). Mathew Leckie (neck) and Jordan Torunarigha (ankle) both trained individually. “With Jordan, it’s simply precautionary and we will look at how things develop over the next two or three days. The same goes for Leckie,” said Labbadia. U23 assistant coach Malik Fathi, who has 175 Bundesliga appearances to his name, joined in the training session to make numbers even.

The 36-year-old was pushed as hard as the rest of the group. After an athletic warm up including sprinting and jumping exercises, the team moved onto ball work. After drills working on transitional play, the team moved into a 9-vs9 game to finish the session, ahead of the upcoming game against Bayern. “We have to look at how we perform on the pitch and that’s what we’ve started to do with this session. Against Bayern Munich, not only is your organisation very important, but also your own possession because you have to work very hard for it, and against them, don’t get as much of the ball as you would against the rest of the league,” said the coach, explaining the reasons behind the training sessions. The team will continue to work on these areas over the course of the week, for which six further sessions are planned before the trip to Bavaria on Saturday afternoon (03/19). The following day, the ‘Old Lady’ will face the champions in the final game of Matchday 3.