Polzin: “Our head, our heart and our legs are ready”

The tension is palpable at Hamburger SV, with Saturday night’s home meeting with SSV Ulm (20:30 CEST) offering the chance for the club to finally secure their return to the Bundesliga. A win would guarantee a place in the top flight next season, although a point could be enough depending on results earlier in the day. The excitement around the club is understandably huge, but the Rothosen still need to navigate 90 tricky minutes against an Ulm side desperately fighting for survival. Making sure all those emotions are channelled in the right way is the job of head coach Merlin Polzin and his staff. At his pre-match press conference, the 34-year-old born and raised in Hamburg looked ahead to the match full of anticipation and motivation, but also with the necessary calm. 

Merlin Polzin on…

…team news: Unfortunately, Dennis Hadzikadunic is out for the rest of the season. Tom Mickel also suffered a shoulder injury in compensatory training and we’re tracking his progress day by day. We’re hoping that Immanuel Pherai can return to training again tomorrow. Aboubaka Soumahoro has been able to take part in a full session already though. That’s very important considering our current situation at centre-back.

…excitement ahead of the game: We told the team today that we’re only interested in these 90 minutes on Saturday. We have a clear target that we want to achieve. We don’t want to think about external factors and all the noise that comes with it. We haven’t been able to show our strengths in our recent home games, so our complete focus is on delivering a good performance. We know what we have to do and want to channel our energy in the right way. The team showed last week that they’re capable of dealing with pressure situations. The tougher the setback, the better we’ve bounced back. I can sleep easily knowing that and it fills me with immense confidence for the work we’re doing and in this team. We’re not feeling any fear; we’ve said from day one that we believe in ourselves, and we still have 100 percent of that belief.

...special preparations: We’re not doing anything different. This isn’t crunch time or anything like that – every matchday is important and offers the chance for us to collect three points. Of course, we’re at the business end now, but we don’t have to fire anyone up any more than we normally would. No one needs extra motivation for a home game at the Volksparkstadion after all the work we’ve put in this season. It’s about channelling it in the right way and getting the team to the right energy levels. We’re not out to create a spectacle, but just need to make sure our head, our heart and our legs are ready – I know that they are. That’s the key thing and so we’re very much looking forward to the game.

"For those 90 minutes, it’s everyone’s job to make sure there’s no mistaking who is playing at home: let’s make the Volkspark louder than it’s ever been."  

...his expectations for the game: The whole city and every HSV fan are fired up for this game. It’s important for us to make it clear to everyone who is able to be at the stadium on Saturday that it probably won’t be a spectacle. Ulm are a real pain to play against – and that’s a compliment. They’re very aggressive in one-on-one duels and can always cause their opponents problems. It won’t be a game where everything we try over the 90 minutes comes off because there’s so much at stake for both teams. For me, it’s important that every fan does everything they can to push the team. For those 90 minutes, it’s everyone’s job to make sure there’s no mistaking who is playing at home: let’s make the Volkspark louder than it’s ever been.

…the centre-back situation: Lukasz Poreba has regularly played at centre-back and left-back in training games, and he’s done a good job. His qualities – his aggressive defending and his composure on the ball – certainly make a case to play him. We also have a very powerful and physical centre-back in Joel Agyekum, who is particularly strong in the air. Silvan Hefti and Jonas