“We need to hit our 100% in every game”

With the international break behind them, the Rothosen are turning their focus back to the Bundesliga. HSV travel to FC Augsburg on matchday 11 to face a side currently sitting below them in the table. For head coach Merlin Polzin, the current state of the table is no reason to approach the match with the wrong mindset. Speaking at Thursday’s pre-match press conference, he explained what will be important against Augsburg. Polzin also spoke about…

…the personnel: Warmed Omari is not available yet, but he working on his comeback. The same goes for Daniel Elfadli, who is already back working on the ball. Yussuf Poulsen will also not be available this weekend. We will compensate for his absence through the different options we have up front. We have said from the very beginning that we will need all of our players over the course of a long season, and I’m pleased that all our other forwards are fully fit. Apart from these absences, we can more or less choose from a full squad.

"We’ve shown in recent games that we can be a difficult opponent for anyone"

…the upcoming opponent: Since switching to a back five, Augsburg defend much more compactly. They only narrowly lost 1-0 to Dortmund and played very well in Stuttgart. You can clearly see Sandro Wagner’s plan, which is to be variable in attack and overload the central areas to cause problems for their opponents. But we have shown in recent matches that we can be a difficult opponent for any team, and our development underlines that clearly. We’ll need to give it our all, both with and without the ball, in order to be successful in this match too. We’re not playing a team in crisis, but a club that has been in the Bundesliga for 15 years straight and has a lot of experience on their side.

…the weeks leading up to the end of the year: We’ve got some really exciting games ahead that we’re looking forward to, but in the Bundesliga we need to hit our 100% in every single match. We’ve known that from the start and we see it every weekend. We can feel that we’ve developed as a side, and the mood, energy and quality in the squad continue to grow, but we’re also working for it every day. It’s a continual process in which we want to implement our principles, both individually and collectively. We’re continuing to develop ourselves and our style of play, always with the aim of picking up the right results. Or to put it another way: we want to be successful, but do it our way.