“We can’t wait for the season to start”

Hamburger SV are set to make their Bundesliga comeback. On Sunday, the Rothosen will play their first top-flight match in over seven years when they visit Borussia Mönchengladbach. Unsurprisingly, the media attention has been intense – as was clear at Thursday’s press conference. Eight TV crews were in attendance as head coach Merlin Polzin answered questions at the Volksparkstadion’s newly refurbished press room, showing just how much he’s looking forward to the big occasion.

The 34-year-old spoke in detail about…​​​​​​​

…the squad situation: Hefti has a hip flexor strain, so his chances of making the squad aren’t promising. We had to manage Glatzel’s workload today because of an Achilles issue – he trained indoors. The positive news is that most of the others are back in training, including Dompé, Poulsen, Pherai and Jatta. Their fitness levels are all at different stages, but we’re optimistic that Jean-Luc will be able to get a few minutes at the weekend. It’s similar with Yussi – we’ll wait for the final session to decide. For Manu and Baka, it will still be a week too soon.

…the goalkeepers: Daniel Heuer Fernandes will start the season as our number one. With promotion, our aim as a club was to be as competitive as possible in the Bundesliga in every position, and above all to create a high level of competition. That doesn’t just happen at the weekend, it happens every day in training. Both goalkeepers have pushed each other superbly. ‘Ferro’ gives the team great stability and has plenty of experience here. His strengths are well known and he’s a key factor for us. The same goes for Daniel Peretz. He has a great presence, is part of our leadership group, sets the tone, has an extremely positive mindset and is always looking to improve. I’m glad to have the choice between the two. One starts now, but over the season I expect maximum performance from both to earn the shirt.

"The enthusiasm we all feel has to come out now."

…his expectations for the game: We can’t wait for the season to get going. The premiere of the documentary this week was another reminder of what we achieved together as a club in the past. On Sunday we’ll be closing out the first matchday against a traditional club with big ambitions. We’re ready and we’re excited to represent HSV in the Bundesliga again. The enthusiasm we all feel has to come out now. We’ve made a few changes to the squad and to our approach, but we’re fully prepared. We know the quality our players have. In pre-season we deliberately set ourselves tough challenges to prepare for the Bundesliga. We’re a Bundesliga side with very good players who all have our trust. We don’t want to hide behind negative thoughts or narratives – we’re ready to put in a strong performance on Sunday and show what we can do.

…the team’s style of play: You can’t go into a Bundesliga match with just one plan. It’s about every phase, in and out of possession. In pre-season we focused on being more compact defensively and creating greater unity, while still wanting to play football and score goals. We’ve worked on our structures for every phase. It’s not as if we’re suddenly going to stop wanting the ball. We’ll have less of it than in the second division, of course, but we fought to get promoted and now we have to embrace the challenge of facing teams who can also play. That’s what we want – to measure ourselves against the best in Germany. To establish HSV in the Bundesliga again, the whole club has to keep adapting and developing.

…HSV’s last Bundesliga game to date: I didn’t see the game live back then because I had a youth match myself. It was obviously a tough day for everyone connected to HSV, but with everything that’s happened since it feels a long time ago. Our focus was always on getting HSV back to where we are on Sunday. We’re not dwelling on the past – our job now is to shape the future, and we have the chance to do that.