“Our aim is to continue delivering strong performances at home”

Hamburger SV round off a turbulent week on Saturday with the home fixture against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Last weekend, the Rothosen successfully avoided storm Elli, but then suffered a frustrating 2-1 defeat away at SC Freiburg on Saturday (10th January) to start the year, with several contentious decisions going against them. On Tuesday evening, Hamburg were keen to channel their built-up frustration into positive energy in what would have been their first home game of the year against Bayer Leverkusen, only to be unexpectedly halted by the weather. Extreme thawing raised structural safety concerns regarding the stadium roof, leading to a very late postponement of the match. There was positive news on Thursday (15th January), however, with the green light given for the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach (15:30 CET). The necessary work on the roof has been completed, meaning the match against the team currently tenth in the table can go ahead as planned. The Rothosen have been eagerly awaiting that confirmation, as head coach Merlin Polzin made clear at the pre-match press conference. The Hamburg native spoke in detail about…

…the past few days following the postponement: To be honest, aside from the days of the Covid pandemic, we’ve never experienced a situation like it. We were sitting down to eat when we found out the game had been called off. Safety always has to come first, even though we can fully understand the disappointment felt by our fans and the travelling supporters. It was the right decision, and now we’re pleased that we don’t have to wait too long to host another home game at the Volksparkstadion. There really wasn’t much time for us to dwell on the postponement. We moved straight on to planning the next training session and analysing Gladbach.

…the squad: We’ll only be without Daniel Elfadli due to suspension, as well as Yussuf Poulsen and Warmed Omari. Warmed continues to make progress and has already been able to join in with parts of team training again, which naturally gives us more options. From a coaching perspective, that’s a nice situation to be in. I’ve said repeatedly that we aim for good communication with the players when it comes to their understanding of their role and their attitude towards the team’s success. Everyone puts the team first. We have a lot of conversations to explain the situation and to give an outlook on what’s still missing. One player said to me last week: ‘It’s not about me, it’s about the team’s success.’ Hearing that from someone who might be a little further down the pecking order meant a lot to me. It shows we’re on the right path.

"Together with the fans at the Volksparkstadion – especially after last matchday’s postponement – we want to make sure the points stay here."

…the upcoming opponents: For me, a team’s development and the way they play are important, not just their recent results. Since the change of coach, they’ve adjusted their positioning and basic structure and have been very consistent ever since. On top of that, they have real individual quality. Tabaković is well known as a target man with a strong presence in the box, Honorat likes to get in behind, Neuhaus provides creativity, and Reitz brings quality in central midfield. That makes them very versatile. The quality in that squad is clear, which is why they’ve been a Bundesliga side for years and managed to stabilize themselves so quickly despite a difficult start. Not every team can do that right away, and it says a lot about the core of their squad.

…his expectations for the game: We know exactly what’s coming our way. Gladbach are tenth in the table, but their results over the last seven games would put them in the top five. It will be a match that demands everything from us. We’ve produced some really strong performances at home recently and our aim is to continue delivering here. Together with the fans at the Volksparkstadion – especially after last matchday’s postponement – we want to make sure the points stay here. To do that, we’ll need a strong, united performance that shows what HSV are all about this weekend.