Ten Hag 'fully focused' ahead of competitive debut for Leverkusen
"We are fully focused on this game and want to be dominant, keen to attack and play with a great team spirit," he said in a news conference on Thursday.
"Focus – it's all about that. If we have that then we are in with a good chance of winning with all due respect to a very strong opponent."
Leverkusen had mixed results in pre-season matches after a summer mass exodus of key figures, including playmaker Florian Wirtz, midfielder Granit Xhaka and defender Jonathan Tah.
New players have arrived in the form of midfielders Malik Tillman and Ibrahim Maza, winger Ernest Poku, defender Jarell Quansah, and goalkeepers Mark Flekken and Janis Blaswich.
"The new players have settled in really quickly and that was enormously important. Now we can fully focus on training and the matches ahead. We give the team a structure and set out a match plan but at the same time we want to allow enough leeway for creativity and intuition," Ten Hag said.
Ahead of the match, the coach appointed Germany international Robert Andrich as the successor to Hradecky as the team captain.
"It was a natural process. He led the way himself in the preseason, was always positive and brought people together. He is the right man for this job," the Dutchman said.
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