Daniel Stendel and his coaching staff have had to transform the mood of the relegated Barnsley squad this summer, says assistant Andreas Winkler.

Head coach Stendel arrived at Oakwell a month ago with Winkler and fellow coach Christopher Stern, to find a group of players who had just been demoted from the Championship to League One.

"They were really down," Winkler told the Chronicle.

"They didn't laugh a lot and they didn't have enough fun in their training. We were a little bit surprised by it, but we had to build them up. Things are different now.

"I have been impressed with the players, they have a very good attitude. They have to change their mindset and try in every session. They are very talented, hard-working and ambitious."

Barnsley played their first home friendly of the summer on Tuesday, going 2-0 up within ten minutes against Championship club West Bromwich Albion before losing 3-2.Winkler believes Stendel's 'gegenpress' style was evident in that match.

He said: "You could see the style of football we want to play in our game on Tuesday. It's attacking football. We will make very fast forward runs. We want players with good skills who are brave. You can make mistakes but then you must get the ball back as soon as possible. We don't want to all go back 40 metres when we lose the ball, we want to try to get the ball back."

Stendel is friends with David Wagner who has taken Barnsley's local rivals Huddersfield Town to the Premier League and kept them there, while Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp also plays that way. Winkler said: "It's a similar style to Klopp, but not exactly the same. It has been Daniel's style for a lot of years, he did not take it from Klopp or David Wagner."

While Stendel cannot speak fluent English yet, both Winkler and Stern have been translating for him on the training ground. The head coach has not done a press conference yet but was interviewed by the club's media team this week and is understood to be improving his English rapidly.

Winkler, who conducted a full press conference in fluent English on Tuesday, said: "We have been helping Daniel in training and with the players. Christopher is very good at English and I am improving my school English. We help him a lot but he is brave and learning and improving every day. It's not a problem. The players know that, if they don't understand anything, they have to ask – so it is their responsibility. Football is an international language so they understand a lot of what he means anyway."

The Germans held a week of training sessions on the Oakwell pitch earlier in the summer but Winkler – who is living in the town centre – enjoyed seeing thousands of fans in the stadium on Tuesday. He said: "It was our first match at home which was a very good feeling. It's so different to the time we spent training in the stadium. It was very good to see our fans in the stands."