Borussia Dortmund players take part in their first training session under Marco Rose

Borussia Dortmund players took part in their first training session under new head coach Marco Rose on Sunday, as they began preparations for the start of the 2021/22 season. 

Twelve Borussia Dortmund players took to the pitch on Sunday morning to take part in the first training session of the Marco Rose era. The training squad included BVB captain Marco Reus, as well as first-team players Mahmoud Dahoud, Julian Brandt, Nico Schulz, Felix Passlack, Marwin Hitz, Roman Bürki, and the returning Marius Wolf.

Ansgar Knauff and Steffen Tigges also trained with the first-team, fresh after guiding the Borussia Dortmund U-23s to the Regionalliga West title. Highly rated youngsters Nnamdi Collins and Göktan Gürpüz also took part in the session on Sunday.

Marco Rose put the Borussia Dortmund players through their paces during the session that lasted for about 90 minutes. The BVB head coach began the session by giving a speech to the squad, and also introduced his assistant coaches Alexander Zickler, Rene Maric and Patrick Eibenberger. The players then did their warm-up exercises before taking part in some training drills with the ball.

At the end of the season, Marco Rose had a one-on-one chat with Nico Schulz that lasted for about 15 minutes. The left-back has endured two difficult seasons since joining Borussia Dortmund from Hoffenheim, and will be aiming to fight his way into the starting XI this season.

Borussia Dortmund head of players’ department Sebastian Kehl spoke to the media after the session and said that they ‘really want to make a difference this season.’

Borussia Dortmund will be further bolstered by the returns of Erling Haaland and Gio Reyna over the next week or so. Reyna is set to return in the coming week, while Haaland is expected to be back at the beginning of next week. The players involved at Euro 2020 are not expected to be back until the start of the Bad Ragaz training camp on July 23.

The Black and Yellows will continue to step up their preparations for the start of the new season in the coming days before taking on Regionalliga side FC Gießen in their first pre-season friendly on July 13.