Frankfurt: Rosler hails 'terrific' United
leedsunited.com 21/7/15
Uwe Rosler hailed his players as "terrific" despite Tuesday’s 2-1 pre-season friendly defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, saying "we got exactly what we hoped for" out of the game.
Steve Morison had opened the scoring after 26 minutes on a sweltering evening in Eugendorf after, beating Frankfurt goalkeeper Heinz Lindner with a well-placed finish after being picked out inside the area by Sam Byram.
The goal came somewhat against the run of play, with United soaking up large spells of Frankfurt pressure and seeing the Bundesliga side clip the crossbar prior to taking the lead and ending the first half strongly.
Johannes Flum equalised for the Germans on 59 minutes after meeting Stefan Aigner’s header at the back post, before Stefan Reinartz clinched the victory for Frankfurt 15 minutes later as he forced the ball home from close-range.
Rosler said: "I think the players were terrific. We got exactly what we hoped for – we played against a team with very good ball possession.
"We worked very hard against them and we worked extremely well in the shape. The longer the game went on, we adapted to their quality a little bit better.
"We kept the ball and scored the goal on the break.
"For periods in the second half, we matched them in the passing. I’m very, very happy – everybody got a run-out.
"It did a lot for our fitness and there were no injuries. Pre-season is all about preparing for 10 months. Today we saw a lot of mental strength.
"Everyone who started or came on wanted to impress and work extremely hard. That was our chance today to compete against a very good footballing side.
"The shape was very good. We had one or two problems we sorted out in the first half, so we became more stable.
"After a while, the players got their breath back because they had to run a lot in the first 20 minutes.
"We got exactly what we wanted – a very good physical session. Hopefully everyone will return to light training tomorrow and prepare for Saturday."
Uwe Rosler hailed his players as "terrific" despite Tuesday’s 2-1 pre-season friendly defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, saying "we got exactly what we hoped for" out of the game.
Steve Morison had opened the scoring after 26 minutes on a sweltering evening in Eugendorf after, beating Frankfurt goalkeeper Heinz Lindner with a well-placed finish after being picked out inside the area by Sam Byram.
The goal came somewhat against the run of play, with United soaking up large spells of Frankfurt pressure and seeing the Bundesliga side clip the crossbar prior to taking the lead and ending the first half strongly.
Johannes Flum equalised for the Germans on 59 minutes after meeting Stefan Aigner’s header at the back post, before Stefan Reinartz clinched the victory for Frankfurt 15 minutes later as he forced the ball home from close-range.
Rosler said: "I think the players were terrific. We got exactly what we hoped for – we played against a team with very good ball possession.
"We worked very hard against them and we worked extremely well in the shape. The longer the game went on, we adapted to their quality a little bit better.
"We kept the ball and scored the goal on the break.
"For periods in the second half, we matched them in the passing. I’m very, very happy – everybody got a run-out.
"It did a lot for our fitness and there were no injuries. Pre-season is all about preparing for 10 months. Today we saw a lot of mental strength.
"Everyone who started or came on wanted to impress and work extremely hard. That was our chance today to compete against a very good footballing side.
"The shape was very good. We had one or two problems we sorted out in the first half, so we became more stable.
"After a while, the players got their breath back because they had to run a lot in the first 20 minutes.
"We got exactly what we wanted – a very good physical session. Hopefully everyone will return to light training tomorrow and prepare for Saturday."