Season

Polzin: “Our focus is solely on these 90 minutes”

HSV’s final home game of the season is this weekend, and it has the potential to be an extremely special one. However, Ulm will be no easy opponents, something head coach Merlin Polzin discussed on Tuesday.

As Merlin Polzin took training on Tuesday (6th May) to officially start preparations for Saturday’s home game against SSV Ulm, two players that played an important role in last weekend’s 4-0 victory in Darmstadt were both absent: Jean-Luc Dompe and Miro Muheim. However, Polzin was able to provide the HSV fans with a positive update: “Jean-Luc was a bit sick over the weekend. He was able to train on a bike today. Muro Muheim’s workload will be managed during this week, but he’ll be involved tomorrow.”

Unfortunately, Polzin did have some bad news regarding centre-back Dennis Hadzikadunic. The Bosnian won’t play again this season after suffering a partial ankle ligament tear and a partial MCL tear in his right knee in Darmstadt on Saturday. “It’s obviously not the best time to lose him,” commented Polzin. “We will miss him, and I feel sorry for the lad himself mostly. We are now working on ways to replace him.” One possible candidate is Joel Agyekum, an academy centre-back. “We believe he is ready. He’s extremely physical and powerful,” praised Polzin, who also has other players in his mind, such as Aboubaka Soumahoro, Jonas Meffert and Miro Muheim. “Whoever plays in that position must be fully confident. In games like Saturday’s, the mental side of things is also important.” HSV will be without captain Sebastian Schonlau this weekend as he serves a suspension for picking up five yellow cards. This means that Polzin will have to tinker a lot with his back-line on matchday 33.

Other than that though, Polzin isn’t likely to make too many other changes to the team for a game that could potentially seal the club’s long-awaited promotion back to the top flight. “It will definitely be a different type of game to ones that took place earlier on in the season. There are so many more things riding on it,” admitted the coach. “We therefore won’t look to introduce new tactics this week and won’t do anything special. We’ll just try to maintain some normality and keep the lads as relaxed as we can. We just want to carry on doing the things that have got us top of the league in the first place. We’re already full of nerves and excitement so we don’t need any more stimulation. Our focus is solely on these 90 minutes and making sure we win this home game. We all know what victory would mean, we don’t need to explain that to anybody. That’s why we’re just concentrating on Saturday’s match.”

The visitors’ fate could also be sealed this weekend. Ulm are currently in 17th place, ahead of only Regensburg, who have already been relegated, and are three points behind Preußen Münster in 16th. Münster have a two-goal advantage when it comes to their goal difference, meaning the Sparrows almost definitely need something from Saturday’s fixture. Polzin knows it won’t be an easy game against Ulm: “They have only conceded 40 goals this season, the same as us. The first half at their place was really poor from our perspective, so we know how difficult the game will be. That’s why our focus is fully on this match and the job we have to do. If everybody does what they need to, we can get the fans on our side and win the game.” Although victory would secure promotion, Polzin doesn’t want to describe the Ulm game as a final. “A final would mean that our hopes would be over afterwards, but we’ve got another game and therefore another chance. Nevertheless, we know we’ve got a big chance against Ulm and we want to take it.”