“It’s more about belief than a percentage chance”

This coming Saturday is a very special one from a HSV perspective: bang in the middle of matchday 20 of this season is the first prime-time fixture at the Volkspark for almost eight years. The Rothosen are set to welcome none other than record champions FC Bayern München for this week’s Topspiel, with kick-off in Hamburg scheduled for 18:30 CET. HSV go into the clash against the league leaders and current champions as absolute underdogs and will therefore be determined to produce their best possible performance if they’re wanting to get anything from the game. Head coach Merlin Polzin articulated his thoughts on what the game would come down to in his Thursday afternoon press conference (29th January).

The 35-year-old Hamburg native spoke in detail about...

...the squad: Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit will unfortunately be out for a very long period after he was fouled in the Hamburg derby. Yussuf Poulsen is also still out for this game. Aside from that, we’ve announced that Jean-Luc Dompe is suspended until further notice. We also have three players who are considering a move away in Silvan Hefti, Gui Ramos and Emir Sahiti, and so those three won’t play any part in Saturday’s game. With Damion Downs, Fabio Balde and Robert Glatzel, we have three guys who have only been able to complete parts of team training this week. We’ll have to wait and see as to how much involvement they’ll be capable of for the game against Bayern. The good news is that Warmed Omari is back with us for the first time after his injury, and he’ll be in the squad this weekend.

...HSV’s approach to the game: I see a team that’s been brimming with anticipation in training and can’t wait to get going against one of the best sides in Europe. We’re playing at home at the Volkspark; even if one or two of you laugh at the fact that I always mention the Volkspark, it’s absolutely the case that we’ve had performances here that are almost not possible at other grounds. For us, it’s not so much about how much of a percentage chance we have to take something off of Bayern, rather we’re focusing on playing with the belief and determination that we’ll need. It’s about the belief that even those things that seem like just a pipe dream can be realised if we give it everything we’ve got. We won’t be making any drastic changes to our gameplan in comparison to how we prepare for other sides, though. It’s also a matter of working hard to make your own convictions a reality. They showed us how it’s done in the first 20 or 30 minutes of the reverse fixture. We’re now further along our development process, and we want to show that we can do better now, even with the knowledge that this game is different to every other across the season.

"You simply have to do that against Bayern if you want to have any chance in the game"

...the strength of the opponent: In fact, we agreed as a coaching team that there aren’t many better opportunities for us than playing here against the strongest players from FC Bayern. With the promotion push, which we’d been working towards for all those years, our clear goal and our incentive was to have the opportunity to welcome players like that to the Volksparkstadion. We’re looking forward to playing against this opposition. We’re going to put in everything we’ve got to get what we want out of a game against this opposition. We’ll invest all we can, even if the initial focus isn’t on the final result, but on the things we need to do in order to play the game in a positive way.

...a potentially more defensive approach to the game: We’ve shown ourselves to be strong defensively, which is something that we’ve been working on all season. We’re definitely intent on putting in a good showing in this respect on Saturday. You simply have to do that against Bayern if you want to have any chance in the game. You need to run a lot and close down the space excellently, which they’re always looking to exploit with the incredible quality at their disposal. That’s why we’ll look to be even more creative and, above all, more intense than we already are in every match that we play.

...HSV’s decision to suspend Jean-Luc Dompe: Nobody is bigger than the club. The club always has to come first. We are all employees of this club, and we want to give our absolute best to be successful here. This decision is a clear sign of the behaviour we expect here at HSV. Hamburger SV stands for certain values and principles. They have to be reinforced with decisions that aren’t always the most convenient from a sporting perspective. We have reached a clear and unanimous decision here. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s important that one learns from their mistakes. We’ve tried to get that message across to him.