Day 4 in Feldkirchen: A better overview…

Preparations for Hoffenheim's fifth Bundesliga campaign are entering the next stages. The technical aspects of the game are moving more into the foreground. Video analysis can provide useful observations, when it comes to fine-tuning tactics. Every day, the student from Heidelberg records his impressions during training, and presents his findings to the coaching staff. There are also regular meetings with players to discuss a detailed breakdown of observations, much like on Wednesday night. Spors edited the important scenes from the friendly game and some parts of training together, and revealed the positive and negative aspects to the squad. “Video analysis is an important feature of modern football. Johannes does outstanding work. He knows the kind of football we want to play, and prepares the analysis accordingly,” said assistant coach Rainer Widmayer with a smile. Being shown their own actions on the pitch should help the players reflect upon their own performance tactically, and learn from the mistakes that they make. “Seeing the images should help the players in being able to better implement the correct tactics,” explained Spors.

Thanks to these techniques, Widmayer could show the team how to improve their passing, and running without the ball during Thursday's training session in Feldkirchen. The first team then ran themselves ragged working on 2v2 situations. Sejad Salihovic was able to watch on from the sidelines; a knock on his calf restricted him to a light running session in the morning, though he was able to rejoin his teammates in the afternoon. However, Spors won't be able to find Matthieu Delpierre anywhere on his recording. The Frenchman left the training camp a day earlier to go to Stuttgart. Just a few hours later, he was holding his healthy, baby son in his arms. Congratulations, Matthieu!