At SC Freiburg things are done differently than at many league rivals. For example, the head coach still edits the analysis videos himself. Why he does not delegate this activity and why he regrets having had too little time for a special instructional video during the international phase, explained Christian Streich on Friday.
Ten games unbeaten, compliments after a 1-2 loss at Bayern, still third and little training time together recently because some regulars were away with their national teams – despite that mix, Streich doesn’t fear a drop in tension for his team ahead of Sunday’s home game against Frankfurt. “I don’t have the feeling at all that anything has run away or anything is not clearly outlined. It’s good the way it is,” says the 56-year-old and attests his professionals to “always be hungry “ for good performances and success.
However, there is one thing the SC head coach regrets: “I would have liked to show them a few pictures of how Bayern does it, why Bayern is so good. I’ll probably do that at some point. Since the boys are so inquisitive and always strive to improve, it would definitely have been an interesting video that we could have had a good exchange about. “
Because the boys are so inquisitive and always strive to improve, it would have definitely made an interesting video.
Because some professionals had flown out with their country selections, Streich did without in the past two weeks since the top game in Munich: “I miss that a bit now, I would have wanted to use that. In a situation like now, you can do things like that well because if you’re at the back and the boys don’t have that much confidence right now and then you show them how Bayern does it well, it might not be the best thought. In our current situation, things like that come through, I think.”
So if Freiburg remain successful, a session of “learning from the record champions” could soon be on the roster for the SC pros. The special thing about it: Streich still edits analysis videos himself, while some league rivals employ several video analysts at once. At SC, this job profile does not exist, the area is completely covered by the coaches. The co-trainers Lars Voßler and Florian Bruns take care of their own and the opponents’ standard situations. Streich and Patrick Baier, the longest-serving of the three long-serving co-trainers, are responsible for the preparation and follow-up of conspicuous play in their own team and in the opponents’ team.
Streich explains the elaborate art of video editing
“I watch the whole game, write everything out and cut it together,” Streich explains his approach. “It’s then the great art of reducing the 40, 50 scenes I caption to fewer. That’s painful, but necessary, otherwise the guys don’t feel like it after eight or ten scenes and switch off. That would be bad, then I would have done it for nothing. That’s how it works, banal really. “
Banal is probably only for those who have developed a routine over the years. But it is still very time-consuming for Streich as well. The SC coach estimates that it takes “six, seven, or in exceptional cases even more hours” to follow up on his own game. Why doesn’t Streich delegate this job to specially hired experts like the majority of his colleagues? “What am I supposed to do? I have to watch the game and I want to show what I saw,” says Streich, who first discusses his scenes with his fellow coaches and then cuts them: “When I show it to the boys, I know every scene exactly and can go into detail. Then I get into the communication. Then it’s what comes out of me and that’s why I do it that way. I’ve thought about doing it differently before, but I can’t because then the substance wouldn’t be enough for me. “
Exception on participation in the European Cup – Will Sallai return?
The coach of the third-placed team in the table might soon be forced to change these habits – if SC qualify for the European Cup: “If we were to play in the European Cup all the time now, it wouldn’t be affordable any more. It was still possible back then, but it’s been eight years since we played in the European Cup and we didn’t play that long, we were eliminated after the preliminary round. “
Whether he will see Nico Schlotterbeck (muscular problems) and Kevin Schade (blow to the calf in the U-21 game against San Marino) in the video of the Frankfurt game at the beginning of next week will be decided in a stress test on Saturday. On Friday, the two DFB players were not able to take part in team training, but were put under individual strain. Roland Sallai, on the other hand, trained with his colleagues again this week after a lengthy break due to knee problems and could possibly return to the matchday squad.
