Season

Optimistic ahead of the final home game of the year

The Rothosen want to sign off in 2024 with a victory against Greuther Fürth. Merlin Polzin was confident and full of energy at the start of the new week of training.

On Tuesday morning (17th December), Hamburger SV began their preparations for their final game of the year, at home to SpVgg Greuther Fürth on Saturday at 13:00 CET. After a day off on Monday, the HSV players trained for over two hours. The session included a mini tournament format. “We want to see the team and every individual player give their all in the final week. We’ll then select players that have done that. That could mean changes to the starting XI, but we haven’t decided anything yet,” explained Merlin Polzin while speaking to media. “I’ve got a good feeling about every player when they start,” he added, whilst knowing at the same time that he will need some quality to come off the bench and impact the game too.

Meffert and Mickel in training

One example of that was Emir Sahiti’s display in the second half in Ulm last time out. “It was a refreshing performance and we all enjoyed it,” praised the Hamburg-born coach. Polzin could make changes in central midfield, with Immanuel Pherai and Lukasz Poreba both only restricted to appearances from the bench recently. As well as those two, Jonas Meffert could potentially return after training with the team on Tuesday. Goalkeeper Tom Mickel was also back in training. HSV will definitely be without Daniel Elfadli (suspended after a red card) and the three long-term injury concerns, Robert Glatzel, Matheo Raab and Ludovit Reis. Fabio Balde, who had been out recently with a cold, is getting better.

The Rothosen started the new week of training with confidence in their squad, as well as the desire to not only improve on the 1-1 draw in Ulm, but also to continue the unbeaten run at home and to end the year on a high. “We have analysed the Ulm game and our focus is now on Fürth. Now isn’t the time to start reflecting on things – we need to approach our next match full of power and energy,” explained Polzin. “Just talking about all the negatives isn’t how I do things. The fact that people are speaking negatively about HSV at the moment just shows how much the club means to people. That drives us forward and motivates us. I’m confident that we’ll win this game and do it with a good performance too.” His team has three more training sessions to prepare for Saturday’s home game in front of more than 50,000 fans at the Volksparkstadion.