Schalke 04 midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng has revealed that the team are enjoying their football more since the winter break.

The Royal Blues have made a perfect start to the second half of the Bundesliga season, winning three out of three games to move into a Champions League place at the expense of Borussia Monchengladbach.

"We can be really pleased with ourselves. We thoroughly deserved to win these three games. Now all the hard work we put in at our winter training camp is paying off. We've grown a lot closer as a team, which you can see from our football on the pitch," Boateng told the Bundesliga's official website.

"We also help each other when things aren't going so well, and that ultimately wins you matches. We talked about a lot of things during the winter break, not all of them to do with football - we also spoke about other internal matters. We resolved everything and have become more of a team since the turn of the year. You can see that on the pitch.

"The lads are all enjoying their football. Everybody wants the ball, everyone fights for the ball. That's what the fans want to see. We feel that we can beat any team at the moment."

Schalke are now four points clear of fifth-placed Monchengladbach ahead of Saturday's trip to second-placed Bayer Leverkusen.