Hertha BSC has started preparing for the second half of the season

Not only were the temperatures crisp, Hertha BSC’s first training session of the new year was too. When coach Stefan Leitl ended the session shortly before four after more than 100 minutes, it was already starting to get dark. But there is a lot to do.

The Berlin second division soccer team has a lot planned this year. At the end of the second half of the season, which begins in two weeks with the home game against league leaders Schalke 04, Hertha BSC wants to return to the Bundesliga.

“Happy New Year! It’s nice that you’re here!”, shouted coach Leitl to the almost hundred stalwarts who came despite inhospitable conditions to watch his team’s first training session. Twenty-four field players and four goalkeepers were on the pitch on Friday afternoon.

These included the long-term injured John Anthony Brooks and Leon Jensen. After completing athletic trainer Henrik Kuchno’s warm-up program with their colleagues, they trained individually with rehabilitation trainer Hendrik Vieth. Brooks and Jensen have been missing for so long that they are almost like new additions to Stefan Leitl – even if it will probably take a while until they are actually fit to play again.

“If Jay Brooks and Leon Jensen come back, then the squad will of course be very, very big,” Leitl said shortly before the winter break. He is therefore “a fan of perhaps reducing the size of the squad first and then doing something again. We are in discussions there and will see what is basically possible for us in the winter.”

Central defenders Tim Hoffmann (a short stint and one more time in the squad) and Agustin Rogel (also a short stint and seven times in the squad) are considered possible departures. Neither of them trained with the professionals on Friday and will not travel to the training camp in Lagos on the Algarve on Saturday. The Uruguayan Rogel, who still has a well-paid contract until the end of the season, is scheduled to train with the U23 from Monday.

Julian Eitschberger could also leave Hertha this winter, although he only returned to his parent club in the summer after a very successful loan from Rot-Weiss Essen and had big plans for the season. But the U-21 international’s hopes were not fulfilled.

Eitschberger had hoped for more from the first half of the season

Eitschberger is dissatisfied with his playing times and is said to have already expressed his desire to move to Hertha BSC. He last played for the Berliners at the beginning of November; his last of only four starting eleven appearances in the second division dates back to mid-September.

Unlike Rogel and Hoffmann, the right-back was allowed to take part in the opening training session on Friday. He left an alert impression and was expressly praised several times by Leitl and his training team.

Eitschberger should also travel to Portugal – because all the other players who were on the pitch for the first session after the winter break. Among them is Soufian Gouram, a talent from the U23s. The 19-year-old midfielder trained occasionally with the professionals before the winter break.

It is not yet clear whether Diego Demme will travel south with his colleagues on Saturday. Hertha’s midfielder trained individually on Friday because an old problem recurred for him. Demme, who has had to take a break several times in the past due to head injuries, is again complaining of discomfort.

Central defender Niklas Kolbe, however, is definitely not scheduled for the training camp. In the last game of the first half of the season, in the 1-1 draw against Arminia Bielefeld, he was substituted early on due to a muscle injury. Immediately after the game, coach Leitl expressed the fear that the defender would be out for several weeks. This forecast still applies. Kolbe is currently in rehab.