Robbie Kruse feels he is starting to reap the benefits of playing at a club such as Fortuna Dusseldorf.
The 24-year old Australian attacker has enjoyed a solid season in the Bundesliga in Dusseldorf and is looking to finish off the campaign in fine fettle in order to help the club stay in the German top flight.
"Moving from Australia was quite difficult initially but you know I worked a lot on aspects in my game to make sure I got into the team here," he said in an interview with au.fourfourtwo.com.
"Now I'm starting to get the rewards. I've had a really good season so far and hopefully I can help Fortuna stay in the top league."
Regarding how he has developed as a player, the former Melbourne Victory man added: "I think in Australia I was only really attack-minded and probably shirked my defensive duties a lot.
"Moving here to Germany they're massive on work rate and doing both sides of the game so I definitely worked on my defending and getting my body into good shape. They look at a lot of statistics - how far you run and all that stuff. In Australia I think I was maybe pushing 10km but here I'm over 12 easily every game. It's a little thing but it's definitely helped me a lot."