This season’s pre-season preparations are in full swing, with RBL making their way to Bruneck in South Tyrol for a pre-season training camp. RBL’s head coach answered questions and spoke about his impression of the first day of training.
Marco Rose on …
… the conditions and aims for the training camp
- “Everything is set up for a good training camp. The pitches, the weather, the hotel and the food – all of them are top class. We want to find ourselves as a team and to develop team spirit. We want to work on the defence as well as the attack across different training sessions. You can always improve in all areas and at the end of the day our aim is that we win as many games of football as possible.”
… new signings at the training camp
- “I already know Loïs – he is a very bright but nevertheless calm lad. Loïs arrived from Belgium late yesterday because he absolutely wanted to be with us here in South Tyrol, which is a very positive sign. I’m happy that he’s here with us right from the start, but we will slowly build up his workload because he played for both Belgium and the Belgium U21s during the summer break and still needs a bit of a break now. Loïs fits our philosophy very well and brings a good physicality and unbelievable speed. We are obviously hoping for a lot of goals from him, but you shouldn’t forget that we have signed a very young player. We have to give him time to get used to a new league and to a new country – that can take some time.
With Xavi, we’re also happy that the transfer was completed before the start of the training camp. Max Eberl, Rouven Schröder and Felix Krüger did some great work, and I am very happy that we have travelled to South Tyrol with such a big and competitive squad. This training camp is a good opportunity to get to know our new signings better but also so that the team can get used to playing with one another.”
Training camp in Bruneck
… his preferred language on the training ground
- “I prefer speaking German and sometimes “Denglish” on the training ground. I think it’s important for the lads to get used to the fact that we’re playing in the Bundesliga. But of course we’re international and we have translators with us. I conduct the one-on-one conversations in English.”
… the departure of Marcel Halstenberg
- “His departure was very emotional. Halste is a great guy and he was an important player for us. There are, however, decisions that you have to support as a club when it comes to family. It wasn’t easy for him and he said a few words to the team. There were also of course lots of hugs and applause.”
…the four youth players at the training camp:
- “I would have preferred to have brought three or four more younger players because they did very well last week. Although he is only 16-years-old, Aris Bayindir is physically developed and very advanced as a footballer. We are already hoping for great things from him. We also have Lenny Henning with us, who gives his all in every session and has a very strong work ethic. Fernando Dickens and Sammy Mohammad are also deservedly working with us. We have a variety of options in every position.”