“We can go into games with confidence and self-belief”

Hamburger SV travel to Mainz on Friday evening (kick-off at 20:30 CET) for the opening fixture of Bundesliga matchday 23. The Rothosen, currently ninth in the table, face a Mainz side sitting 14th, who have managed to steady the ship under new head coach Urs Fischer. Polzin highlighted their progress in his pre-match press conference and is therefore anticipating a “tough challenge”.

The 35-year-old went into detail on...

...the latest squad news: As is well known, Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Albert Grönbaek remain unavailable. Luka Vuskovic will miss out through suspension after picking up too many yellow cards. Nicolas Capaldo was feeling under the weather during the week and couldn’t take part in every session. I’ve spoken to him, and he’s made it clear he’s desperate to play and feels fully fit. I’ll need to be convinced of that before we make a final decision on the matchday squad. We’ll have to see how things go in the final training session on Thursday. The rest of the squad are all available.

…Luka Vuskovic’s absence: It’s no secret that we’ll miss Luka, considering both his performances so far and the person that he is. We have different options available to us, though, so I’m not looking at it negatively. On the contrary, I’m looking forward to seeing someone else in that position. Daniel Elfadli, for example, offers a lot in terms of versatility and repeatedly finds ways to create space, while Warmed Omari and Jordan Torunarigha tend to influence the game more with their passing. They also each bring different qualities out of possession. We have a number of options and will choose a solution that fully satisfies us.

…the opposition: Mainz are an established club who have been in the Bundesliga for around 17 years. Last season, they deservedly qualified for European competition. After the first half of the campaign, they’ve stabilised themselves, and if you look at the form table since Urs Fischer took over, they’re sixth. They defend very compactly, they run tirelessly, and can bring both aerial threat and pace off the bench.

…HSV’s approach: It will be a tough challenge, but we’re now in a position where we can go into games with confidence and self-belief. That only applies, though, if we’re operating at 100 per cent. Without the ball, we’ll need to deal with their physical presence. In possession, we want to build up well to create chances for ourselves and threaten in behind. We’ll need a strong team performance to get a good result.