Klopp slams early-season internationals

Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp has hit out at the timing of this week’s international window, labelling it ‘useless’.

The Dortmund boss was left with just six first-team regulars at training this week, with most of his squad away on international duty.

And Klopp is upset his side’s preparations for Sunday’s match against Eintracht Braunschweig have been so disjointed.

”You get used to it, even though this date of the international match was totally useless one week after the first match,” Klopp said on Friday.

“That is why in the future it won’t be there anymore.

“We still had six players because Miki (Henrikh Mkhitaryan) and Robert (Lewandowski) stayed and then Owo (free agent Patrick Owomoyela) came as guest player, so it was seven.

“We could fill the rest with amateurs, even though many of them haven’t been here either. It worked well though.

“A disadvantage though, is that you cannot do anything tactical as a team. But I count on the long-term memory of my players.”

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick on his league debut for Dortmund against Augsburg last weekend but Klopp does not want the Gabon international to feel under pressure to recreate that kind of explosive impact.

“There is no reason at all to create a situation of pressure out of an extremely positive situation,” Klopp said.

“To say if you don’t score three times next time, then it is already worse than in Augsburg, would be wrong. It was exceptional.

“Three goals are not common and it is so positive that I was happy to help him seeing this situation only in a positive way, and he dealt with it very well.

“But I didn’t expect anything else; he didn’t run around with his arms up the whole week. Totally normal, he practiced, he tried his best and he knows he has to work to keep his shape or to make it even better.

“There are lots of things we can work on with him but a lot is already there and that makes it so exciting.”