Hitzfeld: Premiership our role model

Ottmar Hitzfeld has revealed he intends to use the style football played in the Premiership as his example for his Bayern Munich side as they look to work themselves back into the race for the Bungesliga title.

Hitzfeld led Bayern to Champions League glory in 2001 during a six year reign at the club, and stepped back into the job at the end of last month after his successor Felix Magath was sacked for a poor run of results in the league.

"We have to have big ambitions," Hitzfeld told Sport Bild. "The Premier League must be our example. A quicker tempo, more movement on the pitch, and more application - that's what we want."

Exercises in training have also revealed Hitzfeld's desire to play with a higher defensive line, in order for the team to function more as a unit.

"We need to stay more compact," Hitzfeld explained. "That way, our passing game and our interplay will improve automatically."

Hitzfeld's assistant Michael Henke spent time in London observing Arsenal, and insisted: "We can certainly follow Arsenal's example regarding quick passing and interplay."

Rai Krol wrote:Hitzfeld's assistant Michael Henke spent time in London observing Arsenal, and insisted: "We can certainly follow Arsenal's example regarding quick passing and interplay."

Hitzfeld will find it the hard way .. playing '5-a-side' football outside the box, does not guarantee you wins.

Otto wont like that, he should have gone north to OT to see true attacking and exciting interplay.

Arsenal play the best football in England. Their problem is that they don't have a winning mentality. Which is why they have no chance of winning the league. They are more of a cup team. Hitzfeld wants to develop a cross between defensive and attacking units. It's not realistic to aim for a Barcelona style with what we have in midfield, and he's not exactly going to come out and say we should play attacking football like Bremen and the national team.

Hitzfeld seems to be more innovative than I thought. Astounding considering he only wants to make the job for about three months; maybe it was actually more than just a nostalgic decision...

I read recently that Mattias Sammer has olso been over at London Colney observing our training sessions.

Cesc wrote:I read recently that Mattias Sammer has olso been over at London Colney observing our training sessions.

Yep, that's true. Hamburg's former coach Thomas Doll wanted to do the same, but Arsene Wenger wasn't overly enthusiastic about that idea...

Hitzfeld wants to show that he has not gone stale during his absence. And he wants to build with the Bayern team so that he will be offered an extended deal in the summer.

I heard Sammer was watching a French team, should have known it was Arsenal.

Rai Krol wrote:Hitzfeld will find it the hard way .. playing '5-a-side' football outside the box, does not guarantee you wins.

It does if the manager is famous for their attacking football, and not their counter attacking football like a certain club Saints is a fan off.