New signing Cedric Zesiger did not take long to settle into life in Wolfsburg, carving out a spot in the starting line-up straight away. The Swiss international spoke to us about his ambitions with VfL, how the season has gone so far and the forthcoming clash away to 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday (kick-off 15:30 CEST).
Cedric, you know what it’s like to pick up silverware, having won the double with Young Boys Berne. What are your ambitions, both personally and for the club, now that you’ve joined VfL?
Cedric: “I want to establish myself in the Bundesliga and play as many matches as possible to further my development. As everyone knows, we just missed out on the European spots last year, so that’s obviously the main goal for all of us this time around. I think that we’ve got enough quality in the squad to be able to hit that target. When you look at the passion we have in the team, I think we can achieve great things together.”
You didn’t need long to get your feet under the table here, with Micky van de Ven already a distant memory. Did you expect to settle in so quickly, and how proud does this make you feel?
Cedric: “Both the club and my team-mates made it really easy for me. I was given a warm welcome from day one, and got the support I needed on and off the pitch. Wolfsburg is really well set up as a club and that makes you feel at home right from the off. I can already identify with the club and the type of football that we want to play – it suits me just fine.”
Three matches, three wins, 10 goals for and just one against. What are your impressions of your new team and how important was this start to the season?
Cedric: “It gives everyone a good feeling to know that we’re on the right track. Those were some tough games to kick the season off, so it’s great that we managed to win them. There’s still plenty of work to be done, though. With the transfers that we’ve picked up and the players who were already here, VfL now have a really strong squad with a lot of quality and the right amount of competition at every position.”
The next match is away to Hoffenheim. What’s your opinion of TSG and what do you think the key to success will be there?
Cedric: “TSG clearly have a lot of quality in their squad, but we know that if we play our brand of football and impose that on them, then things should go in the right direction. Regardless of where we’re playing, we need to really try to play our own style, take the game to the opposition and at the same time be as solid defensively as we have been in the first few matches.”
