Claudio Ranieri and his players have a short gap of four days before their next game, which is the German Cup Second Round match against VfL Wolfsburg. Infact that will be the first of two meetings between Stuttgart and Wolfsburg in the span of just six days. The second game being a Bundesliga encounter at Wolfsburg's Volkswagen-Arena.
Thursday (15.9.2005)
After the game, Ranieri and a few of his players and staff went out to have a look at the city of Oslo. Most of the players headed for a night club, while a few went for shopping. Ranieri himself visited a few tourist spots before returning back to the team hotel.
Friday (16.9.2005)
Ranieri's players returned from Oslo on Friday morning. Ranieri told the players to go home and take a day's rest, before heading home himself. By afternoon, the criticism of Hildebrand was all over Stuttgart, in newspapers, televisions, the internet, etc. Ranieri was at his office when he saw one of the TV channels show Rudi Voller and some of the Stuttgart fans blame Hildebrand for last night's drawn game against weaker opposition (Valerenga). Ranieri then saw a similar article at ESPN's Soccernet website.
"What is wrong with these people, instead of encouraging Timo, they are all stabbing him from the back," Ranieri told himself.
Immediately he called up Hildebrand at his residence and told him not to bother one bit about these stupid comments being made. He infact suggested Hildebrand to completely avoid the television, newspapers and the internet for some time. The player assured Ranieri that he was not affected at all by these comments, and was enjoying his time at home. Hildebrand then even asked Ranieri to come over for coffee, something the manager accepted.
Just as Ranieri was about to leave the club's premises, press reporters surrounded him, asking the Italian mainly about Hildebrand's error last night. Ranieri, who was fuming by now, blasted anyone and everyone who had questioned the goalkeeper's ability and voiced his full support and backing towards the player, even labelling him as his key player and first choice goalkeeper. He then left for Hildebrand's residence.
That night Chairman Erwin Staudt contacted Ranieri by phone and praised him for showing his support to Hildebrand. Ranieri convinced Staudt that the player himself was least bothered with what was being said and was already looking forward to the DFB Pokal (German Cup) game.
Saturday (17.9.2005)
Hildebrand and all the other players were back at training. Ranieri had arranged a yoga session as well to freshen up the players, something that was well received. The players then were involved in sessions involving strength, aerobic and tactics. The goalkeepers to worked on their strength, aerobic and tactics. Apart from this they were asked to save penalties and freekicks from various positions. The players then practiced corners, as Ranieri tried to get his defenders to handle such situations properly.
After training Ranieri worked on next match's tactics along with assistant manager Andreas Brehme and the other coaches. They went through video tapes of Wolfsburg matches and made note of players to mark, players to target, and the general strategy to employ. They also saw the Bundesliga match between M?nchengladbach and Wolfsburg that was being played on that day. Following that Ranieri also went through some of the match videos of the Stuttgart reserves team and the youth team to keep an eye on the players. He was happy with the progress of Jens Harter and said he might have to pick him for the first team very soon.
Update from the Bundesliga:
With most teams not playing after being involved in midweek European games, just five matches were played in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Results:
And just a total of four goals were scored, with four 1-0 results and one 0-0 draw.
But that 1-0 win was enough for Schalke to extend its lead at the top of the table.
Table:
K?ln's moved up to 12th place, while Hamburg and Wolfsburg moved upto 6th and 7th place respectively. As a result Stuttgart, who obviously werent in action, dropped down to eight place.
Borussia M?nchedgladbach poor form continued as they remain rock bottom with just a point from five games.
Sunday (18.9.2005)
Training continued under the supervision of Ranieri and his coaching staff as they tried to explain their tactics to the players. Being a home game, and with Wolfsburg too having a rather dodgy back four, a rather attacking strategy had been planned. Players then had a small 7 vs 7 game, where Ranieri tried to get the players to make more use of the flanks. Gronkjaer and Hitzlsperger had a busy time.
Later, Ranieri modified his tactics a bit after watching his players during the day.
Monday (19.9.2005)
The players trained at the stadium today. Besides fitness exercises, Ranieri and his coaching staff made the players perform each and everything from passing, crossing, long balls, corners, direct and indirect freekicks, penalties. Ranieri then organised a match simulation session where in the goalkeepers and defenders had to prevent the midfield and attacking players from scoring for a certain time period. Ranieri and Brehme after consulting with all the coaches prepared the final tactics for tomorrow's game, and Ranieri himself explained it to the players on the whiteboard.
Tuesday (20.9.2005)
The players had another training session in the morning and a light one just prior to the game, at the stadium itself. The Wolfsburg players too were seen warming up just before the game.
Ranieri had a friendly conversation with Wolfsburg manager Holger Fach.
