Team

HSV’s prolific strike partnership

For the second game running, both of HSV’s strikers Robert Glatzel and Davie Selke scored, though the pair aren’t fully satisfied.

Coach Steffen Baumgart went with Glatzel and Selke from the beginning for the first time in a competitive game at home to SC Paderborn, a move that paid off too. In the 2-2 draw, Robert Glatzel got the Rothosen’s first goal from an Adam Karabec assist, before his strike partner Davie Selke headed in Noah Katterbach’s cross for HSV’s second. Glatzel looked to have won the game in injury time, however his goal was ruled out by VAR for handling the ball in the build-up, therefore denying HSV all three points.

Nonetheless, the two strikers, who came first and second in the ‘Man of the Match’ vote, once again showed their prolific nature in the final third. The winner of that fan poll, Glatzel, has scored five goals in his first five appearances of the season, making him once again the club’s top goalscorer. Selke, meanwhile, has now scored a header in each of the last three consecutive games. “We spoke a lot before the game and agreed who would go at the front and far post. I think it worked well overall,” said Selke after the match. The statistics speak for themselves: Selke is averaging a goal every 83 minutes this season, Glatzel every 67. Despite that though, the result against Paderborn was “only a partial success”, as coach Steffen Baumgart put it after the game. Ultimately, nobody within the Hamburg camp was happy with just a point against SCP. The players are now hoping to get back to winning ways after two draws this weekend away to league leaders Düsseldorf.

It's not yet clear if HSV will again go with Glatzel and Selke up front together from the start against Fortuna. Coach Baumgart has a number of options available to him, enabling him to name the best possible XI for each opponent. He also recently stated how important it can be to have attacking quality on the bench to bring on during games – Selke’s goals as a substitute against Regensburg and Kaiserslautern being a testament to that. Even if the two strikers would happily play alongside each other from the start every time, the team’s success is the most important thing to them. “Everybody wants to start games,” explained Selke. “But the only thing that matters in the end is us achieving our biggest target, everything else isn’t as important.” This attitude should hopefully help the Rothosen pick up their fourth win of the season this weekend – Glatzel and Selke will do all they can to help achieve that.