1.FC Slovácko

Slovácko is putting in the work at the training camp in Slovenia, where they’re entering the last stage of the pre-season training. This season will be different to others, mainly because after historically most successful season in top tier football by finishing 4th in the league, the club secured spot in European Conference league for season 2021/2022. The first opponent will be Bulgarian side Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

“We’ve got a very tough opponent ahead of us, who has a balanced attack and defence. They concede very few goal but score lot of them. Cracovia was very similar to Plovdiv when it comes to their style of play. For out pre-season we tried to choose opponents who have a similar type of play to Plovdiv.” Says the head coach of Slovácko Martin Svědík, who is able to work with a similar team to which he had in the last season, only with couple new additions to his team.
The only player from the starting eleven who has left the team is Jan Kliment, who’s moved to polish side Wisla Kraków. On the other side the club managed to secure a new contract for Stanislav Hoffman.

“We have to take these things as they come. It is gonna be very hard or close to impossible to replace Jan Kliment, typologically and the quality he brought to the club. We have to work with what we’ve got. We’re obviously very happy with the way things worked out with Stanislav Hofmann. He’s very important player not just for the team but also for us coaches. The fact that he came back is probably the best possible outcome.” Explaines head coach Svědík, who’s team has been upgraded by the new signings of goalkeeper Filip Nguyen, midfield player Daniel Holzer and attacker Ondrej Šašinka.

“Filip came here to be a first choice goalkeeper. We wanted him, so I’m happy we we’re able to secure the deal. It’s very early to make some conclusions, but so far he’s been proving himself in training and in friendly matches. When it comes to Holzer and Šašinka, you can see that they have not been playing regularly. This obviously always has an impact on the player. On top of that they came into a different training process, with different set goals. It will take time. We however knew that and were prepared for it, but you can see that the players want to work hard and are willing to put everything into training.” Says Martin Svědík, who is pleased with his teams overall work ethics.
“ I have to say I’m surprisingly happy with how the boys been training. We have a complete squad. Milan Petržela has a minor problem, when he stood on his toe. Michal Kohút is another player who came back into full training. The most important thing for us it that the boys stay healthy. The training regime is very tough, but the boys are doing well.” added the head coach.