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Press conference

28.01.19

“We want to do really well”

Hannes Wolf spoke about squad news, his expectations up the match, and the fans’ reception ahead of the game against SV Sandhausen.

It’s been 37 days without a competitive game for Hamburg, but head coach Hannes Wolf is convinced that his team are sharp enough to take on SV Sandhausen on Wednesday evening (30th January, 20:30 CET). “I can’t see us underestimating the game. We’re coming out from the winter break and all the players are raring to go. In Kiel, we experienced what happens when you’re not that good. We have to be fully on the ball and we want to do really well. We don’t want to just be good at points, we want to show a top performance on Wednesday evening,” said Wolf.

The HSV boss spoke about…

… squad news: Unfortunately, Hee-chan Hwang is definitely not available. He picked up a hip injury at the Asian Cup and will be out for two to three weeks. We always want every player to be fit, but injuries like this are a part of football. You can take it as a negative, but at the same time we’re in a good situation, because we have so many players who trained well in the build up. We don’t want to complain. With the exception of Hwang, all the players who were on the training pitch today are ready to play. 

… Aaron Hunt’s return: I’m glad that Aaron is back and he did some spring, tackling, and shooting training yesterday, so he won’t be coming in cold. We’ll see how we use him against Sandhausen. The fact is that we have to have good players on the bench, too. However we use him, the main thing is that he’s fit and can play.

… his expectations of the game: Our last game was a while ago. We shouldn’t assume that it’ll be easy because of the Hinrunde. There’s been a winter break between our last game and the upcoming game. Sandhausen have signed a few new players and mixed things up a bit, we saw that in the friendly. We’re coming up against a team that will perform well here in our stadium. They’re a team that will fight, play physically, break well and they’re good on set pieces. We have to be fully on the ball and we want to do really well. We don’t want to just be good at points, we want to show a top performance on Wednesday evening. 

… new signing Berkay Özcan: I’ve had a good impression of him. It’s a big injury that’s now behind him and he was able to fully take part in preparations, along with the first three training sessions here with the team. It’s important for him to get up to speed and work hard now, then the time will come when he’s on the pitch. I’m glad that he’s now part of the team. We need options and the possibility to change things up in a game. With him, we have an option who’s dangerous in front of goal and good on the ball. Dangerous in front of goal doesn’t just mean scoring goals, it also means playing the final pass in the final third.

… the danger of underestimating Sandhausen: I can’t see us underestimating the game. We’re coming out from the winter break and all the players are raring to go. In Kiel, we experienced what happens when you’re not that good, even if you don’t underestimate your opponents. We have good competition in the team, so everyone’s spurred on to play well.

… the lower attendance: We’re happy about every single fan that comes and supports us. I can understand that because it’s a weekday, the time, and the cold weather that fewer fans will come to watch. At the same time, it’s remarkable that we’ll have tens of thousands of fans in the stadium. They’re still fantastic numbers, so I can’t see anything negative. We’re massively looking forward to the support and we’ll try to send every single supporter home happy.