First team

Improve and intensify: HSV’s key aims in training

The Rothosen begin their preparations for a second successive home game on Wednesday. Following his first game as HSV head coach, Steffen Baumgart has plenty of insights to use as a basis to work from.

When Steffen Baumgart was asked in Sunday’s post-match press conference following HSV’s 1-0 win over SV Elversberg for his assessment of the situation after his first game, and whether he thought there would be more or less work to do in the coming week, the coach couldn’t help but smile. Naturally, he understood the intention of the question, but he chose to use his answer as an opportunity to set out his view of the job of a team and football in general. Football is a “sport of mistakes,” says Baumgart, “and that’s true of every match. There will always be things we’ve done well, but at the same time, there’ll be things we’ve done wrong or at the very least not optimised fully. From that point of view, we’ll always have something to work on every week, regardless of results.”

The 55-year-old is heading into his second week as HSV coach with exactly that approach. The first week was all about getting to know the players and having them get to know his style of play. They didn’t have long to prepare for their first game under their new coach – only five days – but the first signs of his influence are already clear to see. “I think you can see what we’re trying to do,” summarised striker Robert Glatzel.

Glatzel particularly impressed against SVE as a provider, a hard worker and a willing runner. This willingness to prevent the fast and intense build-up play from the opponent, win the ball as close as possible to their goal and find a way to their net was very noticeable. That’s how a number of Hamburg’s chances were created, including the only goal of the day through Ransford Königsdörffer.

Baumgart will of course also work hard on this during his second week. Not just to achieve their attacking aims in his second game, but also ideally to keep a clean sheet for the second match in a row. The defensive stability against SVE should also be considered a result of Baumgart’s style of play, as was made clear by the man with the best seat in the house to notice this: Matheo Raab (pictured).

The ‘keeper, who has the whole pitch in front of him because of his position, lauded the defence after the final whistle, and included every one of his teammates in this. “We did really well defensively, and I don’t mean myself or just the back four. Because defending starts from the front, and we worked really well off the ball together as a team.” These sessions are now about “continuing to improve and intensify.” This will be the central aim of training every day.

After having Tuesday off, which the team and staff used to recover after an exhausting week, the team will get stuck in straight away when they kick off preparations on Wednesday for their next game. HSV can look forward to another home game, again in front of a full house, as 55,000 tickets have already been sold for the match against VfL Osnabrück on Sunday. The home fans are flocking to the Volkspark, where hard work is though first on the agenda until Sunday. Stephan Ambrosius, who is training individually because of a pubic bone issue, is having to reduce his workload for the time being, as is Jean-Luc Dompe, who is working his way back to full fitness bit by bit after recovering from a cold. Other than this, Baumgart has everyone available, and can therefore work intensively to strengthen the foundations he has set more and more over the next few days.