Putting in the work ahead of Bremen

24 hours hadn’t even passed from the crucial home win over Schalke before Sandro Schwarz had turned his attention to the upcoming challenge.  “There are no such things as guarantees,” Hertha’s head coach aptly stated on Monday. Therefore, he already had his troops back on the training ground on Tuesday after their recovery session to begin the week. Time for days off ahead of the away game against Werder Bremen (28.10.22, 22:30)? It’s difficult to do so given the tight schedule ahead of the winter break. “Despite the three points, we have to keep working week to week. Only when we maintain that level will we be rewarded again,” said Schwarz, explaining his decision.

Keep it up and get rewarded. In order to lay the foundations for this plan on matchday 12, the 44-year-old again demanded the same intensity levels on the training ground from his Blue and Whites. “Turn! Spin from the man! Clean contact!” echoed around the pitch. His side worked hard for 45 minutes – always with the ball at their feet after the initial warm up. Before that, the boys had been working in the weights room after running through their individual analysis sessions. “We can continue to improve our switching as well as our positional and attacking play,” highlighted Schwarz who was happy to welcome back Filip Uremovic and Prince Boateng. Derry Scherhant as well as Kelian Nsona and Jessic Ngankam trained individually.

Squad selection and the formation will certainly be at the forefront of the coaches’ minds. Schwarz praised his squad’s adaptability: “I think it’s good that we work along different instructions and can change according to the opponent we are facing, because that makes us much more flexible.” He didn’t want to shine any light on whether Hertha would be playing 4-3-3 or the 4-4-2 system that was employed last time out against Schalke.