Lasse Vibe is enjoying his first pre-season in English football as the players put in the hard work on their first full day of training at their camp in Germany. The Danish striker, who was The Bees joint top scorer last season with 14 goals, said he prefers the shorter, sharper format of pre-season in England rather than the longer Scandinavian pre-seasons that he is used to.
Speaking to Bees Player after Sunday’s Training session Lasse said: “When I played in Denmark and Sweden the winters are very long and that is where you have your pre-seasons. In Denmark you have your pre-season in the middle of the season, which is kind of crazy, but that is where your break is. You have a month off and you go into pre-season for two months. It is a longer pre-season because here we are only doing five or six weeks. I find the long winter pre-season a bit boring. This is perfect and I would rather do this and then play football over Christmas than break because of bad weather and pitches.”
The Bees departed for Germany on Saturday morning to spend a week at the renowned WM Sporthotel complex near Dusseldorf. After a lighter session on Saturday evening the tough pre-season training schedule kicked in on Sunday with the players put through their paces in the blazing summer sun. Speaking about the session, Lasse admitted it was physically demanding but added that it was a lot of fun and good preparation for the season ahead.
“We did a small activation as part of the warm-up and then did a warm-up as normal,” said Lasse. “We divided into two groups. One group did a six vs three possession which we did first and the other half was doing the tough work. It was called carrot running. You had to sprint from the half way line and pick up a ball that was in a box. You had to dribble it towards the box, pass it, get it back, and finish with one or two touch. You then had to sprint back to the box in the middle of the pitch, do two push-ups and sprint towards a goal for a diving header. After that you had to go to a goal on the sideline for a cross which you had to finish in one or two touches before getting back to the line. That was you done once and we did that six times. It was quite tough and the pulse was really high but I really enjoyed it. It was nice and competitive and we were chasing each other because you had to start when the person in front of you picked up his ball in the box. You were going on and on and on with no time to rest.”