German Sky Sports reported that in order to lead Dortmund back to its former glory, the team coach Kovac is forming a brand new logistics team, and the club will soon discuss a contract renewal with him.
Kovac will start the new season with a major advantage: In addition to long-time casualty Schlottebeck, Kovac will be able to welcome all first-team players at the start of Saturday's pre-season training. Sports General Manager Ricken told Deutsche News Agency: "We will all start preparing for the new season together. This is a big advantage over the past few years."
Kovac, known for his strictness, has been ready for it, and he can finally really start to shape his team: Last season, Dortmund was obviously trapped by repeated physical problems.
Dotter chose Kovac at the beginning of the year in hopes that he can activate this team with a frustrated confidence and especially lack of physical fitness. After successfully qualifying for the Champions League at the end of the season, Adeyemi said: "He kicked us hard. I feel more physically healthy now."
In order to maintain this state and let Dortmund players enter the new season with the best preparation, Kovac is building his Dortmund world: 6 new employees are about to join, and personnel will be expanded in terms of rehabilitation, physical fitness, nutrition, game analysis and even sleep.
includes physical fitness coach Georg Schultz and sports science/data analysis expert Noah Tegatz, both of Kovac's former subordinates in Wolfsburg and now joins the team. The German National Youth Team physical coach Andreas Gerge will also join and will be responsible for the rehabilitation field in the future. More attention will be paid to sleep, nutrition and prevention.
Kovac hopes to continue to make Dortmund "move": he attaches great importance to the topic of physical fitness. As a professional player, Kovac focused on nutrition and recovery. His creed is: "Only by working hard can you gain. If you are healthy, your mind will be clearer and your injuries will be reduced."
During last season, Kovac emphasized these issues many times in communication with senior management. During his unemployment, he went to the Premier League to observe, communicated with many coaches, and learned about the structure of each club. He noticed that the team behind Premier League clubs is much larger than that of Bundesliga clubs.
In addition, in Kovac's view, English clubs are more professional in many aspects, especially in terms of game analysis and opponent observation, German clubs still have a lot of room for improvement.
Now, Kovac is working on building his Dortmund world: through new employees, more lactic acid tests and physical fitness tests, and strict regulations on physical recovery (such as ice baths), he hopes to further improve the players' physical fitness indicators.
Meanwhile, Dortmund plans to open contract renewal negotiations with Kovac in the next few weeks. Ricken said: "I have always believed in his ideas and believe that these ideas will work in the medium and long term. We agreed to start a dialogue in the new season. There is no clear timetable and we are not in a hurry to advance."