Kingsley Ehizibue was this week's guest on Udinese Tonight. Speaking from the team's training camp in Bad Kleinkirchheim, he spoke about how pre-season has been going so far and the buzz in the camp ahead of the new campaign.
“There's a great atmosphere here. We're working hard and there's a good vibe this season.. The coach wants us to be bold with the ball so that we can win more games than last season. I'm knackered because the workloads are intense but they have to be for the type of football we want to play.
“We want to get off to a good start this season with a different energy to last year. We're getting ready by working and having fun – that's important.
“Here on our training camp I usually go to bed at 11 and get up at 8:30 because the days are long and intense. In the evening I read and then I fall asleep because I'm really tired.
“We've spoken a lot about what happened last season and now we're ready for the new season. We know we don't want to play like last year. We must win more home games.
“Personally it was tough for me after my knee injury. I feel better now and I'm determined to play a big role for the team.
“I like getting forward and attacking but I have to be good at defending too. I feel like a wing-back now. Before joining Udinese, I'd only ever played as a full-back but I feel comfortable playing a bit higher up now. Runjaic wants the wing-backs to do everything – attacking and defending – as that's important for the tactics we want to play. The boss is speaking to us in English for now. He's starting to use a bit of Italian and he knows that's important because we're in Italy.
“The owner's visit gave is a boost. He told us to work as a team to win matches.”