The new captain shares his thoughts on the spring season ahead
You have become the first choice for becoming club captain after Gyorgy Sandor left the club last week. Have you ever been a captain of a club over your career?
Yes, twice before. The first time happened when I was with Genk in Belgium, where I wore the captain's armband. The second happened when I was with Venlo in Holland. So this is not new to me at all, and I will try to do my best with this responsibility.
The first two weeks of the training camp have now passed, which has included two friendly games. How would you sum up the preparation so far?
The team have worked very well, and the management have made sure that we can train in great facilities. The work which we have alread carried out, is similar to last winter's pre-season. I hope that we can have a good spring season ahead. I think that we will be capable of repeating the form that we showed last spring in the league. We managed to beat almost every team and there were hardly any teams that were able to take points of us.
We have played two easy friendly games so far, however, the serious games are just ahead of us. What do you think will happen in these games?
We had plenty of physical work given to us over the first 7-8 days. It is worth praising the coaching staff that they did not arrange strong opponents for us straight away. They gave us a bit of time to prepare and we had two easier games, which blended in well with our preparation. It is also important to practice the many tactical elements, which we have gone through in training, in those friendly games against teams weaker than us. Now the matches are approaching with harder opponents, so we will have the chance to measure where we are.
Several young players have been training with the first team. who have so far come through the Puskas Academy. What is your opinon of these youngsters, and have they managed to pick up the tempo and blend in with the team?
We have already had young players in our squad, and we have always welcomed them into our group. There were no problems for anyone with them adjusting to us and getting to know us, and they are also clever lads, who have a good future ahead of them.
New manager José Gomes was introduced to the team on Sunday. He has taken several coaching sessions since, and sat on the bench in Monday's friendly win over Marbella. What are your first impressions of him?
I think I can say on behalf of the players that the first impressions are very good. He is a very well prepared, good coach. He is beginning to carry over his thoughts and plans for the future. I am sure that we will be able to work well together, and that we can have plenty of success as well.
Author: David Rechnitzer