Nico Schlotterbeck wants to bring the fans "as much joy as possible"
The intensity in the past few days has been high. In his appearance in today's media round, Nico Schlotterbeck said his legs have felt the impact.
"The intensity is brutal, that's normal for pre-season. But I didn't expect that it would be so high. It is almost exclusively internationals here. But it's a lot of fun to test yourself against the best," said the new signing from Freiburg, who – along with his fellow internationals – made a slightly later start to pre-season following a three-week holiday. "You don't lose too much in that time, because you go running again a week later. But the lads are slightly further ahead. The coach is now putting his foot on the gas to help us make up the deficit." Only football-wise has he needed two or three days to get back into the swing of it. During his break, the centre-back doesn't touch a ball.
The newcomer has also gotten to know the Black & Yellow fan culture during his time in Bad Ragaz and the public training session back in Dortmund. "It's something special when I see so many fans at every public training session. We try to play as well as possible and bring the fans as much joy as possible."
"High-intensity soccer is the key," said Schlotterbeck, adding: "Whether it's in the Bundesliga, Champions League or DFB-Pokal, you'll be punished if you don't deliver a top performance each time. If you play dominant football, you're very likely to win matches. That's what we've been working on over the past week and a half. And if you're in a good place in terms of conditioning, you can play intense football. Dortmund have always excelled at that."
Christina Reinke