Baumgart: “We need to stay focused”

Crunch time is approaching in the 2023/24 season. SpVgg Greuther Fürth are up against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, whilst Hertha BSC are set to take on Hansa Rostock as the action gets underway on matchday 29 in the 2. Bundesliga on Friday evening. Hamburger SV are in action away at 1. FC Magdeburg on Sunday afternoon (kick-off: 13:30 CEST). HSV head coach spoke about the upcoming clash with the 15th-placed side in his press conference on Friday afternoon, whilst he also discussed a couple of other matters relating to HSV. 

The 52-year-old spoke in detail about...

...the squad situation: We’ve got a few absent, or more specifically, ill players, including Dennis Hadzikadunic, Anssi Suhonen and Tom Mickel. We need to wait until tomorrow to see whether they’re options for the squad. Everyone is fit and available to play apart from that. Robert Glatzel will be back in the squad, but he won’t be in the starting eleven and will instead be an option off the bench. I’ve got clear principles and Andras Nemeth will get the chance to build on the last two games.

...1. FC Magdeburg: They’re a team who have lots of technical quality. They’ve even picked up some good results against teams towards the top of the table and have put in good performances in these games. It will be a game between two teams who don’t play many long balls, but rather try to play from back to front. We’ll try to press forwards and I expect something similar from the opposition. 

“I can’t promise that we’ll win, but I guarantee that the boys are going to give it their all.” 

...improving performances: We need to stay focused. Creating chances for ourselves is always going to be a good starting place. In Fürth, for instance, we put in a really, really good performance that we’re not going to play up or down because of the result. The way I see it, we played better than we did against Kaiserslautern, even though we won that game. Sometimes, a result has nothing to do with the performance. We’ve always got to try and push ourselves to the limit if we want to win games in the second division. It means that we need to show intensity and a desire to work hard before we get started on technical aspects of the game. We won’t accept anything less than 100% in Magdeburg.

...the business end of the season: Our goal remains the same – approach every game with the intention of winning. If we want to achieve our main aim, we need to win. We’ve got to show that we want it. I can’t promise that we’ll win, but I guarantee that the boys are going to give it their all. We’re fourth at the moment and want to finish at least third, and second if possible.