“The boys want it, they want to win," said Tim Walter, who is happy with the way his players are performing in training and in matches. "They enjoy being on the front foot and being on the ball.” The 43-year-old VfB head coach is also satisfied with the manner in which his side are implementing his ideas of how to play ahead of Friday evening’s clash with Aue (kick-off 18:30 CEST).
Kempf back in training
“It’s an ongoing process,” added Walter. “We’re making progress in our development and taking things on board. The boys are doing that well. We still need to work on our movements and individual players’ positioning, particularly in matches.” Ideally they will succeed in that on Friday against the Saxony club, who, like VfB, have won two of their opening three league games of the season and currently sit in fifth place.
The VfB boss was not giving anything away as to the personnel he will be sending out to claim a first away win of the season. He did confirm that Orel Mangala (knee ligament strain) will miss out again, along with long-term absentees Sasa Kalajdzic and Marcin Kaminski (both cruciate ligament).
Captain Marc Oliver Kempf has not completely shaken off his injury from the home match against FC St. Pauli, but did complete Wednesday’s training session. Pascal Stenzel only did some jogging but is expected to return to full training on Thursday, while Emiliano Insua and Maxime Awoudja are both in contention again and could be included in the 20-man squad. So too could recent signing Silas Wamangituka, who has now been training with his new teammates for a week. VfB will be cheered on by 2,000 fans who are making the long journey to Aue.