No easing up on the reins from Schaaf

On Tuesday, coach Thomas Schaaf set forth his preparations for this weekend’s Bundesliga clash with Energie Cottbus together with the remainder of the Green-Whites players who were available. In spite of having just a small group at his disposal, which had no personal changes compared to the participants from Monday, Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf demanded all his men had to offer. At the beginning of the week the trainer explained: “The intensiveness of training is exactly the same as when we have the complete squad available. With such a small group we can omit the tactical team issues but there are other things which we can practice.”

Schaaf looked back contentedly on the 10th ‘Elite Trainer Forum’ which he visited in Geneva at the end of last week. Along with trainer colleagues Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger & Co, the Werder coach took the opportunity to discuss the newest developments in football: “There were subjects discussed which are of particular interest to the trainers. It’s not just about general or organisational questions, but rather about new trends which are important for us in doing our jobs,” explained Schaaf, who had no qualms about mingling with his internationally renowned colleagues: “Amongst that group, Werder Bremen are surely not one of the biggest clubs. With our prerequisites, we are a long, long way from the top clubs in Europe but, considering the work we have done in recent years, we have earned a great deal of respect and are delighted to be a member of this circle of clubs.”

source: werder.de

Bischoff: Werder Made Me Play Through Injury

The France-born Portuguese U-21 international was one of Arsene Wenger’s more curious signings of the summer, with the French manager himself admitting that his acquisition was a bit of a gamble due to his track record of injury problems.

Now that he is close to fully shaking off the injury that he came in with, the 21-year-old has pointed the finger of blame straight at Werder manager Thomas Schaaf for the fact that the needed so much time to rehab in the first place.

He told Arsenal TV: “The injury crept up on me really, I started feeling some pain after training. My manager said to me ‘I think it’s OK for you to keep playing’, so I kept playing. But it was not getting any better, and I was in a lot of pain. This went on for 1-2 months, in the end I said ‘I have to have a break, I’m playing in too much pain’.”

Bischoff also shed some light on how it came about that he is now representing Portugal at youth level despite being born in France.

“I was called up to the French Under 18’s, but when I moved to Werder the French manager called me and said ‘If you go abroad I will not select you for the team’ He only wanted players playing in France. So I made my decision, and went to Bremen. Then i met a player called Hugo Almeida, he heard I had a dual nationality, and he spoke to the Portuguese FA and told them.”

“They came to watch me 3 or 4 times in games as well as training, and they called me and asked if I wanted to play for Portugal, and I went to play for them!.”

Once fully fit, Bischoff is expected to debut for the Arsenal reserves, where he will be looking to prove that he is already ready to make the jump to the first team.

source: goal.com