Wolf on coaching staff: ‘We have a very good set-up’

In a media interview, the 39-year-old talked to the press representatives about the strengths of the newly formed coaching staff and highlighted the crucial factors in the forthcoming matches. Hannes Wolf on…

…work with the Werkself to date: ‘First impressions’ isn’t really the right term as I’ve known lots of the lads for a very long time. You automatically follow the different players when you’ve lived in Germany for most of the time and have worked in football. It’s a great team with great players. The team makes an open and positive impression on me in their day-to-day work.

…his playing philosophy: For the next period I will approach the whole thing very pragmatical and look explicitly at what helps the team. What is the best formation? Which position suits which player? Who can you bring on? In the next few weeks it is primarily about winning games. Of course, we won’t look to be negative but instead we want to play football and find the answers on the pitch. I’ve been brought up with attacking football and that’s how I developed as a coach. It’s not about my playing philosophy but doing the best for the term and the club.

…the new coaching staff: It’s great that Peter Hermann is here. He has an incredible wealth of experience. The most valuable thing about him is that he is an absolute expert in training sessions. He also defines himself by that. He has the authority to carry out training and to get the best out of each individual player. It’s great fun working with him. He is a great asset. I then brought in Miguel Moreira. When you look at the squad and we have somebody in our ranks like Miguel who can speak Spanish, Portuguese, French, English and German and is a coach as well, and has been in the game for many years, then we have a very good set-up here.

…the Bender twins: It’s something very special for me to be working with Sven and Lars in their last few weeks of their playing careers. I joined BVB with Sven in 2009. That means we’ve known each other for a very long time. I have closely followed his whole career from a young player to today. Sven’s strengths are positioning, consistency, determination and strategy – the same applies to Lars. When you look at this season then there are obviously characters who can give you security and structure on the pitch. It would therefore be great if Lars can come back before the end of the season. He’s working very hard on his comeback. I’ve already spoken to the two of them and they told me: “You definitely don’t have to leave us out. We’ll make it to the end.” – that’s how those two are. Of course, I didn’t expect anything else from the Bender twins. Every successful team needs players like that.

…the longer build-up to the Monday game: We’ve worked very well and intensively this week. We will have the day off on Thursday as the build-up to the away game against Hoffenheim would be too long otherwise. We will have another opportunity to train very intensively on Friday without having the game at the weekend at the back of our minds. It will be valuable training time for the internationals who were only with us for a few days before the Schalke game (2-1, ed.).