“There'll be white smoke on Friday”

Oliver Glasner on…

…the current situation: "The situation is very positive after the 4-0 win in Magdeburg. We've got our final training session on Thursday and we're looking forward to the league getting under way again today. Playing in the opening game in prime time against the reigning German champions – what more could you want as a football fan?"

…team news: "Jérôme Onguéné is still out, and he'll also miss the games against Real Madrid and Hertha BSC. Hrvoje Smolcic is suspended: he was on nine yellow cards at the end of last season. That leads to a suspension in Croatia, and that's transferred into the new season at a new club. I'll be 48 soon and even I never stop learning…"

... Bayern Munich: "We've looked at Bayern in great detail. They've got a lot of variety in attack and are really good at getting behind opposition defences. It'll be a really tricky game for us. We haven't finalised our thoughts yet. We'll sit down with our analysts again today and see what we come up with. Then we'll see some white smoke on Friday [smiles]."

...the significance of the start of the season: "We want to showcase our football in our very first game, play with high intensity and give Bayern a proper fight. To be playing in the opening game is a kind of reward for our performance last season. We want to live up to that. We won't be raising the white flag on Friday, but will do all we can to start the season with a win."

…Jesper Lindström: "To quote you [in the press]: 'From transfer flop to Rookie of the Year'. That shows how he's developed. We signed him because we saw qualities in him. He just needed to get used to the Bundesliga at first. He's getting increasingly good at exploiting his strengths. He's still lacking a bit physically though. He's still got room for improvement with his finishing but he's on the right track, and he works very hard against the ball and in terms of his movement. He's a very important player."

…Sebastian Rode: "Sebastian in our captain. He had to keep breaking things off during pre-season so that's why we thought it wouldn't be the best decision to throw him in against Magdeburg. Of course, he's very important given his aggression and football ability. Kristijan Jakic is a serious option because he's strong in the tackle, covers a lot of ground and is good at closing down spaces. We've got a lot of good options in midfield, which I'm very happy about."