Winther-Stockholm: - FCK are a class team
It is perhaps a little early in the season to talk about the top and bottom of the league, but the fact is that when FC Copenhagen meet FC Nordsjælland on Saturday, the Lions will be sharing first place, while the north Zealanders have only recorded a single point, and are therefore just barely above the relegation zone.
by Joe Short
Despite a slightly disappointing single point yielded in the season's first two matches, it has nevertheless been an optimistic start, states Nicolai Winther-Stokholm, Nordsjælland’s captain. FCK.DK caught up with Winther-Stockholm a few days before kick off:
You lost the season's first match against OB, and then drew 1-1 at home against AC Horsens in the second. Surely it is not quite the dream start of a new season?
- No, it's not. We would have liked more points than what we have, but we cannot change that now. We just have to look ahead, and here we are looking forward to the match on Saturday against Copenhagen. We have gotten good results in PARKEN before and believe we can do it again. But we know that FCK is a class team and therefore we must be up to scratch on Saturday. We take to the field to get points.
How has your preparation been for the season? And how do you expect your season to go?
- I think we have done some good preparation. We've had some good days in Holland and played some decent training matches. But now the league has started it is now that counts. We fight fiercely for points, but unfortunately haven’t earned the desired number of points against either OB or Horsens. However, there has been progress in our performances. In addition, we've still an open transfer window, and there may still be more business to get done. We should try to improve our performance from last season where we finished sixth, but we would be glad to end in the same place again.
Until now you have not been too active in this transfer window. What do you expect from Mikkel Beckmann? And can one expect several new faces in your squad?
- Let us take the latter first. Whether there are new faces I do not know, but I know we have competent people at the club that handle this kind of thing, so it’s up to the sports directors to make the decisions.
- Beckmann is strong, and he'll strengthen the squad. He has had a difficult year after the World Cup in 2010 and he has not found the form he had before the World Cup. But he'll come up to the level he had before the tournament, I'm quite sure, because he is a very good footballer.
How can you frustrate Copenhagen on Saturday?
- As I said earlier, we should try and control the game and play our way. We must be good on the ball when we have it, and make sure that FCK will not walk the game. We have done this before, we know it will be difficult, but we look forward to the match!
What do you think you should be especially aware of in the Copenhagen squad?
- It is clearly the forward players. We must stay close to our men, for they showed last season that they do not need much space to score.
