Full focus on Friday

Despite starting training at 17:30 CEST on Wednesday, the temperature was still at 31 degrees in Berlin. Nevertheless, Sandro Schwarz’s team worked hard at Schenckendorffplatz in front of the fans as they continued their preparations for Friday’s clash away at Borussia Mönchengladbach (20:30 CEST). “We’ve got a shorter week this time. We’ve started working on our tactics for this game straight away after the day off,” said head coach Schwarz.

Six players missing, Plattenhardt and Myziane training individually

As in recent sessions, Omar Alderete, Dongjun Lee, Jessic Ngankam and Kélian Nsona were all still missing, whilst Derry Scherhant (slight muscular problems) and Linus Gechter (flu) were absent too. The defender will definitely miss the game against the Foals, though Scherhant is not yet definitely ruled out. The same thing applies to captain Marvin Plattenhardt and Myziane Maolida, who trained individually on Wednesday. “Myziane has made more progress than Platte, but we’ll just have to wait until Friday to see if they both recover in time,” reported Schwarz.

A focus on finishing

Following the warm-up with fitness coach Henrik Kuchno, the Hertha players got to work with the ball at their feet. They completed several drills and then some finishing exercises, scoring some impressive goals too in the process. “We decided not to work on certain physical aspects, and focused instead on our shooting before the final session tomorrow,” summed up the coach.

Thursday’s training session will be behind closed doors. “We will prepare properly for Friday’s match. We want to bring our quality and speed to the pitch in Mönchengladbach,” demanded Schwarz.