Satisfied with the completed work

On Saturday Lech’s players finished the 12-day training camp on Cyprus. During their stay on the Mediterranean island, the team played three sparing matches. One of them ended with a solid win for the squad from Poznan, while the other two finished with draws. However, the staff values the players’ work during the training sessions more than the results of the friendly games. “We did some good job during the camp. We have been working very hard and we are satisfied with what we achieved. Nonetheless, the most important thing is to play well in spring; this is the main goal of our preparations,” explained the Austrian coach.

Within two weeks, the league starts again. Therefore, the coaches decided that the team is going to train with lower intensity and encumbrance than on Cyprus. “In the past few days, we trained more frequently because we needed to prepare the squad for the spring league round. Often, we had two training session per day. However, we won’t be able to work this way during the season. We might do so during the break caused by the national teams’ matches when many footballers depart and we have a smaller squad to work with,” said the fitness coach.

The work the players completed in January is of great importance to the training staff. “The preparatory phase lasts 5 weeks. The goal is to prepare the players physically for the next 4 months of regular matches. We trained with higher intensity to get them ready for what’s coming. And there are a lot of matches ahead of us,” emphasised Mayer, who believes that Lech’s squad will be perfectly ready when they will have to face the first league rival.

Bjelica’s team has the first league match planned for next Friday. Similarly to last year, Lech will initiate the second phase of the season with a match against Termalica Bruk-Bet Nieciecza. Lech’s rival is currently ranked 4^th in the league. “We have a dozen or so training sessions before we play the league clash. We need to focus on the players’ endurance, but we also can’t forget about the tactics. The upcoming two micro-cycles will be extremely important to us,” explained the coach.