Baumgart: “There were lots of positives”

Midway through the third international break of the season, Steffen Baumgart is satisfied with how it’s gone so far. Despite having six players away with their respective nations, he’s had a good number of Rothosen available to him in training, including the recently injured Silvan Hefti, Dennis Hadzikadunic and Emir Sahiti. The trio all featured in yesterday’s 4-2 defeat to Twente in a friendly, along with several academy players who have been in first-team training this week. Following the game against the Dutch opposition, Baumgart spoke to the media about his squad and the current situation after a run of three league games without a win. Steffen Baumgart discussed…

…the friendly against Twente: The first half was good. We then made several changes for the second half to integrate the youngsters and the guys coming back from injury. We played against a strong side who did really well. I think the first half was more worth talking about because we matched them. It was important to use all our players, including the three centre-backs from our academy. Aside from the result, there were a number of positives.

…Hefti, Hadzikadunic and Sahiti: We’ve got another week of training ahead of us, so I expect all three to be a genuine option for our next matchday squad. We saw that there is still a big difference between training and a game. At the same time, it’s important that the lads get back into the rhythm of playing competitive matches. It was a good opportunity for them to get back to the pitch.

Hefti did well in the first half. We have to keep working on Hadzikadunic to get him back to his best. Sahiti was good in attack. He’s dangerous with his 1v1 play, but needs more clarity in his game. However, he joined us quite late on, has now had an injury and was only able to play 45 minutes for the first time in this friendly. We will need to slowly get the lads used to the intensity required again.

…the current mood at the club: The mood in Hamburg sometimes completely switches within 14 days, both positively and negatively. I’m just trying to focus on myself and the lads. We want to work on the things that we can be better at and will keep our heads up. We’ve lost our way a little at the minute and my job is to get the lads back on track to achieve our goals.