Tyler Dibling
Tyler Dibling
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Double training sessions, extra set piece work and cycle rides to the base from which Spain won Euro 2024 have dominated Everton’s week in a secluded spot in southern Germany.
The players left their pre-season training camp close to the Black Forest on Friday to head to Stuttgart, where the first of three friendlies in a week begins the countdown to the new season.
The players do so in good spirits after having their bodies pushed through morning and evening fitness sessions and their minds tested by Wolf, the strategy game similar to the Traitors that has been a popular feature of the downtime given to the squad.
David Moyes and his team have made double training sessions a feature of pre-season to date, both in the opening camp in St Andrews, Scotland and again here in the German countryside close to the Black Forest.
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The players were hard at work on Thursday when the ECHO visited the exclusive Öschberghof spa resort that has been their base for the past week.
The secluded hotel, with its three golf courses and two Michelin-starred restaurant is a pocket of luxury hidden in the rolling hills of south west Germany, close to the borders with Switzerland and France and where the nearest town, the pretty Donaueschingen, claims the source of the mighty Danube.
Öschberghof’s three golf courses were a focal point for the players on Wednesday, when they were given time off. Jarrad Branthwaite and Hayden Hackney, whose friendship pre-dates Hackney’s arrival from Middlesbrough this summer, overcame Dwight McNeil and Nathan Patterson in one of the matchplay rounds enjoyed in the picturesque setting.
Darts is another popular game in the camp, as it has been for years, but so too is Wolf, typically played in the evenings. The game, popular in the England setup for some time, tests a wider group of ‘villagers’ to work through deception to try and identify the treacherous ‘wolves’ among them.
For all the luxury on display at the hotel and spa, the real attraction for Everton’s stay is the football base over the crest of a hill that hides the resort from the nearest road. On the other side are the pitches used by SV Aasen, a small German side whose home has hosted the likes of Inter, Al-Hilal and, two years ago, the Spain side that defeated England in the final of the Euros.
It is to those pitches the players have been cycling to and from through the week on the bikes made available to Öschberghof guests. There, they have been greeted by double sessions, the second taking place in the evening to avoid the worst of the summer heat.
Both Hayden Hackney and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall told the ECHO they were being pushed physically by the demands of the coaching team but that they were enjoying the build-up to the new season.
Specialist work is also being undertaken at Aasen, with Dewsbury-Hall part of a group of players who are working on new routines led by set-piece coach David Reddington, who the club confirmed this week would continue his role into the new season after joining in the final weeks of the last campaign. Players and staff accept set pieces were a missed opportunity last year.
Footage from the sessions this week have highlighted the ease with which Iliman Ndiaye has returned to the camp despite the intense interest in his future as clubs including Al-Hilal weigh up a move for the winger.
On the other side of the attack, Tyler Dibling has been working on his crossing to acclaim from the coaches. Footage of him crossing from the right with his left foot to the acclaim of coaches is among the highlights released this week as Dibling, like several of his teammates, builds towards the final fortnight of a pre-season in which he is hoping to make a case for greater involvement once the campaign gets underway.