Pavel, what are your first impressions of the start to pre-season?
"Not much has changed. Alfred has already worked with us before and knows how things work here. I'm very happy that he's come to us. He proved at Ajax that he's a good coach. Not everyone reaches the semi-finals of the Champions League. And on a personal level too, he's a great guy."
What's your assessment of the new signings after the first few training sessions?
"It's obviously difficult to say after so few training sessions. But they're all very nice and have integrated well. Ihlas Bebou was often my opposite number when we played against Hannover 96 in the past. He's incredibly fast. I'm happy that he's now here and playing alongside me."
On Saturday you have your first friendly fixture. Are you looking forward to the Eintracht Braunschweig clash?
"We have four friendlies in this pre-season. I always look forward to it when we have a game. Then I can show in training that I deserve and want to play. There's obviously a lot of excitement."
Have you already set yourself targets for the coming season?
"We still have to speak internally about our concrete objective as a team, but we definitely want to be competing for the European places as we have done recently. We have a very good team and we know our strengths. On a personal level, I'd like to be slightly more dangerous going forward. I got better in that respect last season, but there's still room for improvement."
