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21.10.2026
All eyes on Ostwestfalen: Squad Update as HSV Head Into SCP Week
Following their 1-0 home win over Stuttgart, HSV face their next “brutally difficult challenge” away to SC Paderborn. As the new training week got underway, Albert Sambi Lokonga returned to full team training. A trio including Fabio Vieira also took part in some of the session.
The admittedly thunderous roar of celebration following Miro Muheim’s late game winner in the recent match has now died down around the Volkspark. It is part and parcel of professional sport that the next match, the next challenge and the next assessment of performance and results are always just around the corner for those involved. And so, as the new training week began on Tuesday afternoon (20 October), it was back to business as usual for the HSV players at the Volksparkstadion.
Of course, training is easier when you have won three Bundesliga matches in a row, particularly given that HSV had not managed such a run for around 16 years. However, when the Hamburg side travel to face Bundesliga newcomers SC Paderborn at 3.30 pm on Saturday, that winning streak will count for little in determining the outcome of the next match. The same, incidentally, applies to the disappointing start to the season, when HSV suffered three losses and conceded 12 goals without scoring themselves before their home match against Cologne, which marked the beginning of their turnaround.
Merlin Polzin, who has always championed a measured, detail-oriented and content-driven approach to training — a philosophy he has continued to uphold since taking over as head coach in November 2024 — will therefore remain focused on his team’s ongoing development in the coming days.
“We didn’t overreact to the situation when results and performances weren’t going so well, and we’re not going to do the opposite now either,” said the Hamburg-born coach during a media round. “We’re very clear in the dressing room about what lies ahead. We’re facing a team that fully deserves its place in the Bundesliga, thanks to some excellent performances over the past few years and again at the start of this season. They have plenty of quality in their individual players and, under their coaching staff, adopt a brave approach. It’s a brutally difficult challenge, and from today onwards we’ll be preparing for it with real focus and intensity.”
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Sambi returns, while Vieira, Daka and Jatta take part in partial training
In terms of team news, Polzin was able to welcome Albert Sambi Lokonga back to team training on Tuesday. The 26-year-old had missed the Stuttgart match with adductor problems, forcing HSV to make wholesale changes in the central midfield.
“With Sambi, we had to manage his training load a little differently over the past few days, but he has completed the full session. Paderborn is, of course, very much the target for him,” Polzin explained.
Patson Daka (pictured) and Bakery Jatta, along with Fabio Vieira, also completed parts of the team training session before moving on to individual work with rehabilitation coach Sebastian Capel.
“Fabio reported that he felt a slight cramp towards the end of the match, which is why we substituted him. However, it has already improved, so he was able to train with the team today apart from the final part of the session.”
HSV stalwart Jatta is also making progress after his adductor problems and could potentially be an option again during the upcoming run of midweek and weekend fixtures, just like striker Daka.
“We’re gradually increasing Pato’s workload. We have three matches coming up, so he will certainly have a part to play again. He feels good and is raring to go, but we also need to weigh up carefully which player features in which match.”
In general, however, Polzin does not want to look too far ahead just yet, keeping his attention firmly fixed on the Paderborn match. Any forward planning or workload management is limited to players who have recently been injured, rather than those who featured last weekend.
“Paderborn is always a difficult challenge. We’re not thinking about Frankfurt or Frankfurt just yet,” the coach said, referring to the two subsequent fixtures against Eintracht Frankfurt, one in the cup and the other in the league.
There is one thing Polzin and everyone at HSV will, naturally, be hoping for in all three matches: more resounding celebrations like Miro Muheim’s most recent roar of delight — celebrations that, on Saturday, they hope will once again ring out from Ostwestfalen, this time from Paderborn, around 220 kilometres away.
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