So do the consequences of the transfer lock also play a role for you?
Fresh blood has already been missing. If you have been together as a team for so long, one may not want to hurt the other like that. That’s why I spoke of a cultural change within the team.
In conversation, do you often use anecdotes and pictures – does that also apply to working with the team?
I have a pictorial language. This is not trained, that’s my nature. Stories, experiences, quotes – that is part of it. Our work must be alive. You have to make what you want to convey to the players too. You have to be a good entertainer, a mixture of entertainer and trainer. The time to explain something to a team is over. The attention span among young people continues to go down. I used to be warned at school when I wobbled with the chair. Today, gymnastics are actively done so that nobody nods in. As a trainer, we have to prepare for this changed society. We also have a long video session, but more often here five minutes, there are eight, there. Go over time or you go over time.
A quote from Schiller, which, however, also became known by the TV series “Stromberg”.
True (laughs). I work with everything I get in my hands. Monotony is the death of attention. The players always need something new. I offer and promise the players. I cannot promise you to play on the weekend. However, I can promise you to come to training and notice that the team of coaches has really thought.
Do you also have clear rules?
Only two: 45 minutes before the training is a meeting point. In addition, no cap and no cell phone at the table while eating together. Otherwise it will be expensive. In addition, I think every rule only means that I have to check whether it is observed. If training starts at 10.30 a.m. and one is 23 seconds late, I would have to sanction it. But it actually makes no difference whether we start at 10.30 or 10.32 a.m. This is a typical German phenomenon. Instead, we just organize ourselves in such a way that we go on the pitch together and start. Or in the training camp while eating in the hotel: Do I really have to say to someone that he doesn’t come for lunch with bathing flaps? We’re not on vacation. The players are adults. I appeal to common sense, respect within a group.