Polzin: “A really cool story”

SC Preußen Münster will host HSV on Friday night (18:30 CET) at the old-school Preußenstadion. “It’s a really cool story when you know the role this ground has played in the history of HSV,” said Merlin Polzin on Wednesday (5th February), referring to the fact that it will be the Rothosen’s first league game there since their maiden Bundesliga match. Nevertheless, the coach’s focus is very much on the game itself, which he discussed in detail at the pre-match press conference. Merlin Polzin talked about…

…the squad: Aside from the guys that have been on the sidelines for a while, we’re still without Immanuel Pherai and Fabio Balde, as well as the suspended Daniel Elfadli. Aboubaka Soumahoro worked individually today – we wanted to manage his workload after he was extremely motivated in training yesterday and felt something at the end of the session. It will be a close-run thing regarding his availability for Friday. Davie Selke is fully fit again and his energy will help us on Friday. We’ll have to see if he starts the game or not – we’ve got other good options in attack in the form of Ransford Königsdörffer and Otto Stange, plus we’ll see how everybody does in the final training session before making a decision on the squad and the starting XI.

"We’re not bothered about where we come from, but rather about where we’re going"

…a supposed weakness against certain sides: We can’t do anything about people saying we’ve struggled against supposed weaker teams in smaller stadiums in the past. To us, it doesn’t matter who our opponent is or in which stadium we are playing. We only focus on the game itself. We’re not bothered about where we come from, but rather about where we’re going. We want to win every game we play, there is a real togetherness here and we’re putting the things we work on into practice. There are also things that we can and want to improve on, regardless of who or where we are playing.

…opponents SC Preußen Münster: This will be a tricky game because of the way they play football. Since switching to a back-five, they have made life really difficult for a number of opponents. They defend their goal commendably and have dangerous players from counter-attacks. However, we know what to expect and are heading there full of positivity. We’re also excited to play at the Preußenstadion. It’s a cool story when you know the role this ground has played in the history of HSV. We’re looking forward to the game and playing at this stadium, and we’re desperate to send the HSV fans home with all three points.