Borussia Dortmund are now 28 days into their preseason. It’s a preseason with obstacles. “If we start listing all the players who are unavailable we could field a competitive team,” said Jürgen Klopp in the build-up to the friendly against Verona on Friday for which he will also be without Henrikh Mkhitaryan due to muscle problems.

Jürgen Klopp on…

Neven Subotic following his eight months on the sidelines:
“He returned from the summer break in great shape, a lot better than I had hoped for given his long absence. Of course, he is currently under a heavy training load, but overall he is in very, very solid shape. He has had little problems so far, neither muscles nor other ones. Neven is well on the way.”

…on his first impression of Ciro Immobile:
“The same applies to him as he’s also doing heavy workload, and we are currently doing high volumes of training. It’s also a new environment for him. He now has to get used to our ways which differ significantly from those in Turin.”

… on the fact that for the first time he’s coaching World Cup winning players:
“You can also say that for the first time World Cup winning players will have to be coached by me. I don’t think the lads will be much different. As long as they only carry the trophy on their skin and not in their hands, I really don’t care much.”

… on integrating the World Cup winning players into the daily training routine:
“You don’t need seven weeks of preparations to get in shape for the season, but certain modules need to be completed. How quickly this happens depends on the condition of the players. Three weeks of holiday is, with the programmes each one was given, not such a long time for them to start from scratch.”

… on the new captain:
“I already know the name.  It’s logical, reasonable and not spectacular. However, the announcement will have to wait a little longer.”

… on a different system with two strikers:
“It’s an option we have to consider, especially for the time in which we won’t have Marco Reus available. A lot of things will chance through our attacking options. When we started in 2008, we played the same system, a 4-4-2.”

… on a fragmented preseason:
“If we start listing all the players who are unavailable we would have a competitive team. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Our goal is that we want to be an awkward opponent from Matchday one, and to accomplish this we want to make use of the energy and enthusiasm of the new arrivals.”