Team

HSV begin preparing for clash with Hertha BSC

HSV have picked up preparations for their away game against Hertha BSC. Head coach Merlin Polzin spoke to the media afterwards and offered an update on the squad, as well as discussing the competition within the team and the mindset that comes with being the league leaders.

Another primetime fixture awaits Hamburger SV this weekend in the form of Hertha BSC (Saturday, 20:30 CET). Last weekend’s clash with 1. FC Köln saw HSV celebrate a 1-0 win in the league’s primetime spot on Saturday evening, and they will be hoping for a repeat exactly a week later. Not only will be be a duel between two well-supported and long-standing clubs in German football, but the match could have important implications in the table as well. HSV go into the matchday sitting in top spot as they travel to take on 12th-place Hertha, but the two clubs are separated by just six points. Recent history has pitted these two sides against each other often, notably in the relegation play-off in 2022, as well as in the Bundesliga 2 and DFB-Pokal last season.

Head coach Merlin Polzin prepares his team for the trip to Berlin.

On Tuesday (21st January), the Rothosen began preparing for the next clash with the Berliners. Noah Katterbach (ACL) and Hannes Hermann (illness) were the only two players absent from training. Robert Glatzel and Matheo Raab continued to work on their comebacks, while Immanuel Pherai only trained partially and Fabio Balde worked individually. Ludovit Reis was able to return and take part fully in the session for the first time since his thigh muscle injury. After training, Polzin spoke to the media about…

…the latest squad news: Ludovit Reis is back in team training and could be an option for the squad. We will need to take into consideration the fact that he was sidelined for a long time and see how he’s able to integrate himself back into the team. There’s always a difference between working individually, completing parts of team training and then fully returning. But, everything looked good today and all went as planned. He feels good and energetic. The situation with Manu Pherai is that he had carried a knock into the game, which is why we had to take him off. We’ve been able to use the last couple of days to ease him back in. He took part in the warm-up today and worked together with Sebastian Capel afterwards. That also went well, so we’re feeling optimistic.

"This sort of competition is the best thing for us."

…the competition within the team: For us, it’s not about who will play at each position at the weekend, but rather about the lads being able to continuously improve with each training session, in addition to keeping the quality in training high and helping to develop the team further. As such, it’s good that we have as much competition at each position as we currently do, from Willi and Hefti at right-back, to Baka and Emir slightly higher up the pitch, to our strikers or even in defensive midfield and the centre-back spot. With the latter, I’m pleased that Bascho is working his way back and that he’s making progress after his illness. We’re looking at what makes sense based on how we want to play and how our opponents line up, and always take the most recent week of training into consideration. This sort of competition is the best thing for us. It means that we're able to focus on discussing our decisions in a positive way in the lead-up to the game in Berlin, instead of having to deal with any worries in terms of having several injuries to deal with.

…their mindset as the league leaders: We don’t want to sit back and defend, but instead want to remain focused on what’s coming next and always attack first. This mindset should be reflected in our style of play: we always want to find solutions by being brave in attack. We’re expecting up to 20,000 HSV fans to travel to our our next game in Berlin, and that’s for a late kick-off at 20:30 CET — there’s nothing better than that. We’re not too concerned with what could happen in the table. We’ve said many times that the quality of the other teams is very high and that we want to challenge ourselves each and every week. Hertha BSC are now our next opponents. We’ve analysed the game against Köln and are now preparing ourselves for Hertha. The table and everything else that comes afterwards aren’t our main focus at the minute.