November – First Month in Charge
When I joined the club I was met with a team that were deflated after a less than impressive start to the season and with two players that had requested transfers under the previous manager. It was always going to be a difficult task to get the team back playing together, never mind winning. You can imagine my surprise when I won my first game against Hannover, and the fact we won it so convincingly was even better. Van Der Vaart stepped up to the mark and showed why he is such a vital player with him scoring a hat trick. It is crucial that he stays fit and continues this great start under my leadership if we are going to get anywhere in this league.
Frankfurt has been the surprise team so far in the Bundesliga, with them at the top of the league at the time we came up against them. It was damage limitation against the league leaders and we were fortunate to have only been beaten two nil. It was important to get back to winning ways and a match against Nürnberg is what we needed. It was a confident performance with the team showing that they can perform well in front of a home crowd. Despite us losing against Dortmund it was brilliant team effort to come away with having only been beaten one nil. They walked all over us and created double the amount of chances that we did and René Adler has to be praised for his efforts to stop the likes of Reus and Lewandowski.
It has been an ok start to my time with HSV but things have to get better away from home if we are going to meet the expectations set by the board.
Player of the Month – Rafael Van Der Vaart
1
