Season
03.05.21
Boldt: “The team needs a fresh impetus”
Head of Sport, Jonas Boldt, spoke to the media on Monday afternoon about the change of head coach and the coming weeks.
The last few days have been extremely tough and eventful for Jonas Boldt. Last Thursday (29/4), the Head of Sport saw HSV disappointingly draw 1-1 at home to Karlsruher SC, the fifth straight league game without a win (D3, L2). After this negative development, the 39-year-old had several discussions over the weekend, which eventually resulted in head coach Daniel Thioune departing the club. Academy director Horst Hrubesch was installed as interim coach until the end of the season. Jonas Boldt answered questions on this decision at today’s press conference.
Jonas Boldt discussed…
…the change of coach: Firstly, I would like to thank Daniel Thioune for his work done over the past few months. It’s no secret that I still think a lot of him as a coach. Unfortunately, the negative developments in recent days meant that we needed to make a change. If it’s clear that there isn‘t clear leadership, then it’s my job to react to that. It’s a real shame, but it’s not always about what you want. You sometimes just have to do things based on judgements at the time. The team needs a fresh impetus; I had no choice but to change the coach.
…the reasons for the change: The results over the past few weeks have affected Daniel Thioune. We could see how down he was after the Karlsruhe game. The distance between him and the players simply became too big, so we worried that the season would end badly. We would have severely damaged our hopes if we had left things as they were. Keeping development and ambition up is the biggest challenge. You can’t let things fizzle out – that kills sporting ambition. We now have a clear plan that we want to put into action together.
...the development: We won’t stop doing things the way we were. Our idea is to focus on young players with potential so that we can develop as a club. However, with Daniel as the main man in charge we didn’t believe that we were on the right path for this development, which is why we made a change to this important position.
...discussions with Horst Hrubesch: As he joined the club as academy director, he made it clear that his coaching career was over. However, after the Karlsruhe game, he also noticed that something wasn’t right. During the conversations on Sunday, it was clear that he could be able to provide a fresh impetus. The result of the next phone call was that he is aware of the responsibility and will take it on, albeit only until the end of the season. We want to be successful in the final three or even five games we have left.
…the future of the assistants: When we’re talking about a clear plan, we need the details to be spot on. Things weren’t working with the head coach, however we don’t suddenly want to play a different style of football. We just want more leadership and a more relaxed nature. Merlin Polzin and Hannes Drews can deliver that together with Horst.
…possible candidates for 2021/22: As we‘ve only just made this decision, we obviously haven’t had any discussions with possible candidates for the new season. We need to establish a profile first, while at the same time focusing on our remaining games in 2020/21.
…the chances in the final weeks: We need to attack these games head on. We’re obviously realistic, but our sporting ambition means that we won’t give anything away easily. That’s also something Horst Hrubesch has in him – we want the team to be like this as well.