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Cologne coach Stale Solbakken has explained why he has taken his side away for a training camp this week, and left four players behind.

The Bundesliga strugglers, who slipped into the relegation zone last weekend after losing their third game in a row, will spend Wednesday and Thursday hidden from the public eye in a training camp, but the Norwegian coach has left Kevin Pezzoni, Milivoje Novakovic, Andrezinho and Petit in Cologne.

"They will not be in the squad for the Werder Bremen match," said Solbakken.

"These four players will train in Cologne. They will have a physiotherapist, a coach and a team made up of the best of our under-19 and under-21 players.

"I will then decide whether they return to our squad after the Bremen game based on their performances in training."

Leaving four players behind is just one of the measures Solbakken has taken in a bid to reverse his side's poor form, and to save his own job.

Cologne have picked up only four points from their past eight games and a defeat against Bremen this weekend could bring an end to Solbakken's reign, which is why he wants his side to be fully aware of what is at stake on Saturday.

"We will have more peace and quiet in our training camp to be able to work not only on, but also off the field," he said on his club's website.

"We were heading in the right direction three weeks ago and I am very disappointed with the last two performances.

"I take the responsibility for these performances and these results, and they were very bad.

"We must improve on them drastically because we need points against Bremen.

"We can work as a team, also in the psychological area, to prevent collapses like the last two games from happening again.

"We cannot allow that to happen again in our final six games, therefore we have two intensive games in a training camp and that is why we have taken this measure."