Paulo Vinicius on pre-season, Friday's friendly game and the start to the league season

This is your 6th training camp with Vidi in Spain. How do you feel and how would you sum up the pre-season so far?

Everything is good and we are training in good weather and fine facilities. I would say this is natural as we have never had problems before in this area. We needed time in the first training camp to get used to the swing of things again after the winter break. It helped that we had a fitness program and that we did not start from zero when we came back. We are now in the phase of being ready for friendly games. The most recent was last Friday and I do not think we disappointed.

You played in the friendly against Dinamo Bucharest. What was the game like?

That is correct and I played against the Romanian side in what was the first full match this year. It was good to be back on the pitch and the team performed well. We moved with tempo throughout against a quality side. We have looked back on that game and we know where we have to improve. Now the tough training sessions are dominating but there will be a new challenge on Friday.

We now face two friendly matches against Russian opponents FK Krasnodar and Lokomotiv Moscow. What are you expecting from these matches?

I have already played in several games against Russian sides during pre-season. I have to say that they are always tough matches. They are high standard and play quick football so it will be another challenge for all of us that go out on the pitch. This gives us the chance to learn and see where we are and what we need to improve in. 

The first 31 days of the year have resulted in you training for 20 of them in the training camps.

There is no problem with this as training camps are part of a footballer's life. The team bond better at times like this and we can get to know each other that much better. It also allows for the new players to blend in better. Work is also important as we prepare for the spring season ahead.

The league season will start on the 18th February with 3 tough matches.

The fixture list has brought together three very big games at the start of the season. We will entertain Ujpest before visiting Ferencvaros. Then Honved will visit us in the third game. If we can do well in these games, it will give us a big push in the remainder of the spring season. I feel that we have prepared well and that we will not have problems with our form by the time the first league match arrives. We will go into the second half of the season in first place so we will need to focus on ourselves. Everything is in place for us to achieve our targets.