“It’ll be a waiting game against Union”

On matchday 22 of the Bundesliga season, Hamburger SV will host FC Union Berlin at a sold-out Volksparkstadion. There was an unusual sight at the press conference before Saturday’s game, however. Since head coach Merlin Polzin is feeling under the weather, assistant coach Loic Fave took his place in the press room on Thursday afternoon (12th February) and fielded questions from journalists. The 33-year-old Hamburg-born coach, who has been at the club since the beginning of 2024, is also head of HSV’s youth academy, and he spoke in detail about…

…the squad: Albert Sambi Lokonga, Albert Grönbaek and Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit will definitely be out. It’s going to be a close one for Fabio Balde, since he’s started to make the first steps back into team training this week. Otherwise, Nicolas Capaldo is back following his suspension. Yussuf Poulsen is also back in full training and getting back to his best every day. We’ll wait and see how he looks closer to the time. He’s back in contention for the squad. We’ll also talk about whether Jean-Luc Dompe, who has also taken part in every session this week, has done enough to be included in the squad. He wants to give something back to the club and the team. He’s very motivated in training. We expected him to react this way.

…Merlin Polzin’s condition: Get well soon, Merlin! It seems that open-plan offices have their downsides – first, some of the coaching staff were feeling under the weather, and now Merlin’s got it. Hopefully, it’s not too bad, and he’ll be back soon. We’re not acting under the assumption that he’ll miss the game this weekend. If it turns out that he does – like against Kaiserslautern last year – then Merlin has complete faith in the coaching staff. We work on a lot together. It wouldn’t change a great deal. In the past, he has trusted us 100% and said that we can call the shots.

…the opposition: Union Berlin clearly have a distinct football philosophy. Steffen Baumgart knows exactly what this team excels at and where their strengths lie. We’ll have to be very patient to break down compact opposition that like to sit deep. That much has been clear in the last couple of games over the past few weeks. Eintracht Frankfurt, who have a wealth of attacking talent, also struggled to create chances against them, for instance.

“We’re looking forward to the reunion and I’m excited to see what pearls of wisdom he’s going to give us before the game.”

…the game plan: It’s going to come down to being quicker than the opposition in a number of areas. When opportunities to counterattack present themselves, we need to use them ruthlessly, because then we won’t have to get through all of the opposition players – like we did in the recent game against Heidenheim. Fundamentally, it’s important to be bolder and more attacking-minded when getting forward and also get more bodies into the other team’s penalty area to increase the probability of scoring when a cross is put into the box. That’s what other teams have tried to do recently, too, and it’ll just be a waiting game against Union where there will be fewer opportunities to score.

…a reunion with Steffen Baumgart: I’m really looking forward to seeing Steffen again. Having to follow the game earlier this season from home must’ve been a nightmare for him. He prefers to be pitch side. He was a super important point of contact and confidante for me when I started at HSV. I learnt a lot from him. He’s very loyal to his people. Working with him was really fun. We’re looking forward to the reunion and I’m excited to see what pearls of wisdom he’s going to give us before the game. (laughs)