“We are flexible and know we will be challenged on Sunday”

After a resounding 3-0 home win over 1. FC Kaiserslautern last time out, the Rothosen are back on the road this Sunday, away to SC Paderborn at 13:30 CET. The HSV players have had a long week of training to prepare for matchday 24 and for a fixture that has often been filled with goals in the past. HSV coach Merlin Polzin spoke to the media on Friday about this past week, his squad and his expectations for the game. The 34-year-old talked about…

…the squad: Everyone knows about the long-term injury concerns Noah Katterbach and Bakery Jatta. We also unfortunately found out this week that Aboubaka Soumahoro’s injury is worse than it initially seemed. He’s got a problem with a tendon in his thigh and will sadly be out for a few more weeks. It’s obviously not what we or he had hoped for, but we’re still doing our best to help him integrate. He’s slowly becoming a part of the team and that’s a positive. Matheo Raab is still in light training, while we rested Fabio, ‘Ferro’ and Miro today. Robert Glatzel and Manu Pherai are both back in full training. They will need a bit of time to get back to full fitness though.

"The special thing about our team is that they can play different styles of football."

…the upcoming opponents: One of SC Paderborn’s biggest strengths is the way they manage to have success against teams that play different brands of football. They are extremely versatile and can play with a back-three, back-four or back-five. This can prove pretty tricky for their opponents, which is why we have come up with a number of different plans. We have had to make sure we’re prepared for several different challenges. We have also worked on the basic principles of our game this week and revised our patterns of play. Paderborn have set up with a number of different formations out of possession this season. One thing we know they will do is press us at a high intensity. They will give us space and opportunities and we believe we will find the right approach to win the game, with all respect to Paderborn. The special thing about our team is that they can play different styles of football. We are flexible and know we will be challenged on Sunday.  

…his team’s unbeaten run: Knowing that we have consistently picked up points in recent months gives us a good feeling. It means that we can start games with confidence and have belief in what we are doing. It’s important to always want to win, as was the case in training this week. This will also be the case on Sunday. We’re not travelling to Paderborn to lose the game but rather to win it, which is what motivates us. What happened in December and January is less important to us – the last and the next game always play a role for me. We work on our process every day and focus entirely on content-related goals. It’s not about results or our position in the table, but about setting ourselves up in the best possible way to keep on picking up victories to achieve our ultimate goal of promotion. We tend to look to the future instead of thinking about the past.