To work on their deficits in peace and quiet, VfB Stuttgart went away for six days to a training camp during the two-week Bundesliga break. Coach Pellegrino Matarazzo is even thinking of new structures for the VfB game in Spain.
Six days in Marbella, including one day of travel, four days of intensive training, one day with a test match against an as yet unannounced opponent and the return home: Today, Monday, the Stuttgart players, who arrived in southern Spain on Sunday late afternoon, started with two sessions. In the morning, there was one session with two groups, which was similar to the usual player substitution training on the day after a match. In the afternoon, there was normal team training, in which the professionals, who had been on the pitch in Freiburg on Saturday and had mainly practised regeneratively in the morning, were fully integrated.
“The next two weeks are very important to work well together and to work very well, very much athletically to have an effect for the next weeks,” coach Pellegrino Matarazzo had explained before the departure. “It’s not unimportant for us to get a bit more fit. “
“Normally, I would also invite the team to dinner … “
But new things can also be expected in terms of tactics and playing system. The head coach, who also has Marc Oliver Kempf and Roberto Massimo (both missing for sporting reasons), Daniel Didavi (knee problems) and Philipp Förster (cold) back on board, is even taking things a step further. He is considering “whether we need a new structure, new procedures. Or how we can refine the existing procedures in order to play more precisely to the end.”
What exactly he means by that, he doesn’t want to reveal. “I’m always looking for solutions, what helps the team best and how each player can reach his performance limit. That’s why I don’t rule anything out. “
In principle, as the recent five defeats without a goal show, they have more than enough to do, which should bring on sweat and muscle pulling. But the head and heart should not be neglected either. “There is a lot to work on. But you mustn’t forget that you can come together as a group and have a beer once in a while. We haven’t had the opportunity to do that lately,” Matarazzo said.
“Normally, I would also invite the team to dinner once in a while, you would go out together once in a while, spend a few hours together, talk about the situation and grow together.” That comes up short in Corona times “and would do us good as a group”. In Marbella, Matarazzo wants to give himself and the team the opportunity they need.
