BTS with the coaches during SQUAD PLANNING for the Youth League 😳 | Follow us around Europe ⭐
Follow our U19s as they travel across Europe! The Youth League kicks off with a home match against Villarreal, and you’ll be right in the thick of it: centre-back Romeo Ritter will take you on a tour of the dressing room, you’ll find out how the squad is put together, we’ve fitted the manager with a microphone, and you’ll witness emotional team talks and stunning goals. The journey begins – come along! ▶ Subscribe & hit the bell: https://goo.gl/kujepC BVB-TV: https://www.bvb.tv/ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bvbofficial Twitter: https://twitter.com/BVB Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bvb09 Facebook: https://facebook.com/BVB TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bvb Website: https://www.bvb.de/ BVB
Transcript
That’s the Youth League, lads! We’ve all got to defend! Our season kicks off today! Come on, let’s get a move on! That’s got to be the aim in this group here. Our goalkeeping coach – he’s always here, always working hard on his fitness. The final training session is about to start, so I’ll just take you along for the ride. At the final meeting, once the squad has been finalised, the coaches from the U17, U19 and U23 teams will, in principle, sit down together with the sporting management. And then, of course, it also depends on the line-up in the first-team squad on the day and whether anyone might be brought down from there. We’ve got too many players out, plus the suspensions from last year. So there are currently 18 left, and none of those 18 are coming. That means Mathis is in the first-team squad, Luca is in the first-team squad, and Samu is in the first-team squad. Yes, centre-back was a given now that Filippo’s injured. It’s a similar situation up front, so we’ll have to make a few changes. Who else would we bring in, then? From the U19 squad, Thomas, if it’s down to performance, I’d pick Niklas. Yes, I agree. He’s certainly been performing well for the last two weeks and hasn’t had it easy with us, so I’d bring König in as well. So if Degener comes down, I wouldn’t play him at left-back. I’d definitely bring him into the centre of the park, because that’s where we’ll definitely need stability against them. And if we then play with Luke, Tim and, say, Tom, and can bring Justin on, then at the very least we’ll always have the quality we need in the middle. Justin’s also brilliant on the wing. I mean, just in terms of his current form – the way he’s playing at the moment – he’s bound to make a difference for us. He’s in great form, and then we’ve got a cracking wing duo: you’ve got Justin playing inverted, and Fadi doing well on the right. Then there’s Ahmad, a textbook number nine, and a strong midfield. We’re bringing Miguel on. Right, that’s fine then – so we’ve got it, haven’t we? Of course, that also means that one or two players from the Under-19s won’t be in the squad. And those are the hardest conversations to have. Well, I think our team is actually handling it very well. Some players are a bit disappointed, but they’re not letting that drag the team down. They might be downhearted for five or ten minutes, but the next day they’re fully on board, watching the game. Or when they come on, they give it their all. So I think we’re handling it very well as a team. My name is Romeo Ritter, I’m 18 years old and I play for BVB’s Under-19s as a left-sided centre-back. I’ve got a good feeling about it. It’s not the first time we’ve played Villarreal, after all. We played them last season as well. Last time, I thought we were the better team, and I reckon we’ll win tomorrow. I’d been injured for two or three months before that, and then my first match back after the injury was straight away in the Youth League against Villarreal. Yes, that’s why tomorrow’s match is a special one for me too. And you’ve still got a score to settle, haven’t you? Yes, definitely. We have to win tomorrow. Hi everyone, I’m going to take you behind the scenes today. We’re currently one day before the Youth League match against Villarreal, and we’re about to have our final training session, so I thought I’d just take you along. So here’s the changing room – I’d say it’s quite big for an Under-19s team. This is where I sit; here are our names. Sitting next to me is Tom, one of my best mates, who I used to play with at Wattenscheid 09. It’s quite special to be sitting next to him here. Right, here are our snacks: pretzels, a banana, water, nuts, dates. Just little snacks to give us energy during training or even during the match. Here – this is very important for Olli – our trackers. They let you see how far you run in a match and how many sprints you’ve done. You can see who runs the most, and after the match, the results are posted on the board. As a centre-back, you don’t run that much, but I actually always manage to clock up over 10 kilometres in a match. Come with me. Here’s the physio room. Here’s Julian. Bjarki. Yes, so this is where you can get treatment before the match. Or after the match, too, if you’re in pain. Physiotherapists are very, very important. We’ve also got the sauna here. We use it once a week, usually around the middle of the week. Here’s the fridge. It’s got apple spritzer and things like that in it. This is always an important part of my routine. The day before a match, I always go into the ice bath here. Lots of players do this to make sure their legs are fresh the next day. Before or after the match? Before the match and after the match. That is, the day before the match and straight after the match, so that you can train again the next day. Can every player cope with an ice barrel like that? Yes, some of them make a bit of a fuss, but I’d say quite a lot of them actually end up in the ice bath. How long are you going to stay in there? About three minutes. I’m not going in for that long either. That’s when it gets a bit gross, isn’t it? Here’s the hot tub. Contrast baths are also very popular – start with a warm bath and then finish with a cold one. That’s what our physios say is always best. It’s the cosiest place, isn’t it? Yes, it’s definitely more pleasant here than in the ice bath. This is the gym; I often do a bit of strength training here after a session. Or before a session, we usually warm up or go for a cycle. Everyone has their own routine, and this is usually – well, actually, it’s always – where the rehab coaches are working with the players undergoing rehabilitation. Do you have a favourite exercise that you enjoy doing? I think pull-ups are cool. Pull-ups? Yes. How much can you manage? I’d say about 10 to 15. Our goalkeeping coach is always here, always working hard at the gym. You can tell – he’s really built up some muscle this season. Yes, now’s the time to really focus. It’s time – training’s on, come on, training’s on! So, most of the time, we play this sort of game to build up a lot of contacts. Then there’s tactics – usually based on the opposition – such as how we press them, how we mark them, or what we do when building up play. And the coach makes things a bit easier for us, because he involves us a lot and talks to us a lot as well. Come on, slow down! Yes, yes, Romeo, that’s good! Tim, that’s good! Leave him out! Oh, Justin, don’t let him in! How are you going to manage it? How are you going to manage it? I’d say— listen, what we’re actually putting up with right now is: Give him this side, give him this side, so he can’t do the turn. He’s supposed to go there, and you’re part of that. Don’t be so greedy, because I know you always want to win the ball, but first we all need to get into the press. And if you’re up front, we’ll all be too late. A quick run-through and just seeing how the lads are when they’re there – how they put themselves in the situation, how focused they are, how fully they take on a role, even if they’re just sparring partners at that moment and have to re-enact a scenario. It’s actually quite an exception for us to do that in a context like this. Yes, so it’s always about just how focused they are and how they take on the task they have to fulfil at that moment. We need exactly your flow tomorrow; that’s important. So just stick to the topics as you’ve been doing, and some things simply won’t work because we’re not used to working together at the moment. That’s only natural. So stay steady. That’s the most important thing for me. We’ll work our way into it tomorrow. Most of the time, we also have a bit of shooting practice before the match, so the strikers feel confident going into the next game. I don’t think shooting practice before the match is that important to me personally, but the strikers always tell me that it gives them a good feeling. Tom Faust’s pretty good, I’d say. Justin Hoy too. And from that distance, Jan-Luca, I’d say. When I’ve got a clear shot, I usually score , but I just don’t get that many chances to shoot. Well done, Tom! Guys, everyone’s making a racket, the bench’s making a racket – we’re pushing ourselves. Even if things aren’t going the way we’d like them to, we just keep pushing ourselves further and further. In terms of our play, we’re better than what we saw last year. Could you turn the lights off for a moment? Our season kicks off today with this match. Enjoy it – I definitely want to see you all smiling. We’ll give it our all. And here’s a little something for you. Lads, it’s our game. I told you, no matter where we were in Europe last year, no matter which pitch we were on, we put our bloody stamp on every game and that’s what we’re going to do today as well. I want absolute fire out there, I want pure passion, because we can play football either way. If things aren’t working, get up and go for it full on. Right, if we concede a goal, get back up and go all out – two or three times over. On three, team! 1, 2, 3! That’s the Youth League, lads! We’ve all got to defend, from front to back. Well, I’m actually a bit nervous before every match, but I need that too, because it helps me perform better. And there’s a bit of excitement as well. I mean, when it’s the Youth League, the opposition is usually better than in the league. And that just makes it more fun to compete against the best players in Europe. I thought we actually dominated the game in the first half. I mean, we had a lot of possession. We played very well and were very composed. I felt that we completely dominated the game and that we should have taken the lead earlier. We had quite a few chances, and then we just went on to make it 1–0. Very good, Fadi. Well done, Ahmad, Ahmad, good move, Ahmad. You will score, too. It really couldn’t have gone any better, and that should normally have given us a real boost at that stage. Somehow, though, the opposition managed to step it up again just before half-time, and we conceded a goal straight away. That was pretty bitter. The only thing that’s really annoying here is that we sometimes get a bit moany. That gets on my nerves. I don’t understand Spanish, so I don’t know if they’re doing it too. But we’ve got to stop that, because we’re not three seconds into the future – we’re three seconds into the past. So if a mistake happens – and they happen all the time – just put it behind us. Take responsibility in defence, take responsibility in defence. Nobody lets anyone off the hook or lets anyone run free. We definitely need to communicate. And if the communication is like it was just now – that we’re going with them, then we go with them. That’s the plan. And when we’ve got the ball, just play. We had an advantage, but we gave it away straight away. So let’s get the next one. Come on! I then said, ‘We’re definitely going to score a second goal now. Yeah, well, he can really shoot hard and accurately. And in training, you can sometimes see that he’s a really good shooter for a defender. That was a right mad situation, because at that moment I didn’t think he’d score. But anyone who knows Jan-Luca Riedl knows that he has his crazy moments on the pitch – in a good way, of course. And he just smashed it up into the top corner. I don’t know how many metres that was – 20, 25? Something like that. It was a dream goal, of course. When you take a 2-1 lead, you shouldn’t take your foot off the gas. And that’s exactly what we did. And they were simply more clinical in certain situations. I reckon they had four or five shots on goal and scored three goals. So we need to make it 3–1. In games like this, you have to seal the deal. That’s just the way it is. How often do you see it in professional football that the deal isn’t sealed and a team suddenly scores an equaliser or even the winning goal? And that’s unfortunately what happened that day. It was a huge disappointment, because of course I couldn’t defend the third goal myself either, as I was off the pitch. But generally speaking, we could have achieved more, and that’s why we were disappointed. And now there’s a bit of a wait until the next match. And when you’ve lost, and then lost again to Villarreal – and it was another close one – well, it really is very bitter. It’s simply because we’ve forced or created an advantage twice – however you want to put it – and within a very short space of time – once after 2 minutes, once after 4 minutes – we’ve immediately conceded a goal. It’s clear it’s not going to be easy. And then come these comments I hear here when we come off the pitch: ‘Yeah, mate, they were fouling us the whole time.’ Lads, where you’re heading – do you reckon they’ll just let you run straight through without stopping you? You need to grow up a bit, be more resilient in that regard, because they were shoving us in every challenge and we got worked up. If we can get close to 100 per cent in certain phases, we’ll have them completely dominated. We let go too often, we let go too often. And that’s what I’m taking away from today, and it’s getting on my nerves. We need to work on that, no matter what the context – whether we’re playing on Saturday or Sunday, or Tuesday or Wednesday, or in the Youth League. Or whatever else might come up. I simply expect you to commit to the game plan as quickly as possible, give it your all, and not have a meltdown at some point during the match. That’s what we’ve learnt. And then we’ll pick up enough points to secure a seventh match in the Youth League. Because that’s the aim. That has to be the aim in this group here. The next match is away at Bodø/Glimt. And we need to win that if we want to keep our hopes alive in the competition. And then, of course, we’ve got Matches 2 and 3 against Bodø/Glimt and Sabah – two trips that are absolutely brilliant for me. I mean, when do you ever get the chance to go there? So I think we’ll be focusing on making sure we really enjoy those. But the lads know – or should, of course – that they’re feeling a bit of pressure now, because we’ve started with a defeat. There are still five matches to go. And everyone knows how tight the table will be at the end.