With less than a fortnight to go before the 2019/20 Premier League season begins, Ralph Hasenhuttl will now start the fine tuning of his squad.
Ralph Hasenhuttl was not happy in having to split his squad for the recent trip to Macau and felt that it disrupted his plans for the season.
Now he takes what can be seen as his fullest squad yet and as good a clue so far as to his thinking for the coming season, his squad has a few notable faces missing, not least Jack Stephens who finds himself out in the cold with Yoshida, Jannik Vestergaard, Jan Bednarek and Wesley Hoedt all being preferred.
Ralph had this to say.
"We have worked very hard so far in the first four weeks of pre-season to turn the last wheels and get prepared for a very tough campaign,” the Austrian said ahead of the travelling party’s departure from their Carton House training base.
"I think the guys are working very hard; I like the way they train, I like the way they are listening and I think we are in a very good way. We had a good trip back from Macau and we stayed in UK time so we could immediately continue working hard here in Dublin.”
He has also confirmed that although he will mix and match a little for this game with most getting time on the pitch, that for the home friendly with Koln it will be more of a first XI for most of the game.
"We will again play with one team for 45 minutes and make some changes for the next 45 minutes like we did in the last few games. Against Koln, I think we will play longer with the first XI.
"It is a good chance for everybody to show up once again and I hope the opponent shows us a few problems because it would be good to show us a few things that don’t work in our shape then we will know what we need to work on.
"I hope to see a few things that are missing; that is the most useful thing for us during this period of pre-season, knowing what you can improve in the last two weeks.”
Feyenoord will provide the sternest test so far in pre season and perhaps the toughest of all having finished third in the Eridivisie last season.