Carry on the good work

Holtby and Ito return

Just a day after the win in Dresden, Titz’s men began their preparation ahead of Regensburg. There is no question that the midweek fixtures in a row will be energy-draining for the HSV players: “At the moment there is a considerably higher workload for the squad. We’ve only had two days between Dresden and Regensburg to recover, but our victories have been a good motivation to keep on working so hard,” said defender Gotoku Sakai.

There is a real buzz around the club ahead of the game. With four wins from the last five games, HSV are in good shape. This is proof of the continuous hard work that has been put in around the club in the last few weeks and months. HSV president Bernd Hoffmann stated, “If we don’t go into these next games working together and giving our all, we won’t have any success.” The fans are also excited for the game, with more than 44,000 expected in the Volksparkstadion, 1,000 of those being away fans. Another reason for the excitement is the high-scoring games that have taken place at Hamburg in recent times. Even if the games aren’t dramatic, the HSV fans will still get behind their team and drive them forwards. 

“The most important thing is that we find the right players to play the next game.”

Head coach Titz has two players available to him again; Lewis Holtby and Tatsuya Ito. Both players joined first team training during the week and have declared themselves as fit for the match on Sunday. “Both are available for selection and we’re pleased to have two more options for our squad,” said a pleased Titz. The coach is also planning to rotate some of his squad: “The most important thing is that we find the right players to play the next game. We need to get the right mix from our squad and quality. I hope that we get this right, as it’s not an easy thing to do.” Moritz-Broni Kwarteng, Bakery Jatta, Jonas David and Morten Behrens will not be the squad for Regensburg as they already played for the U21s on Friday night.