Hamburger SV - The Return to Glory

With nothing in the transfer budget it is going to be very difficult to achieve anything other than safety in the first season. I have to rely on free agents and my current squad to provide something special. I have decided to pick a 4-2-3-1 formation for the main tactic and will focus building my team around that formation. Being an English manager I have to include the classic 4-4-2 (Shocker!) to my backup tactics and a more obscure 3-4-1-2 fast-paced attacking option.

Philosophies

– Play possession based football.
– Sign young players to develop.
– Sign first-team and first-team backup players from free agency.

Targets

Short Term (1 year): Finish mid-table, reach the Third Round of the DFB-Pokal.

Medium Term (3 years): Top 6 finish, reach the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal, reach knockout stages of European competition.

Long Term (5 years): Win the Bundesliga, win the DFB-Pokal, win the respective European competition.

The Return to Glory #1: Rebuilding Phase

Looking at my squad it is relatively strong for the 4-2-3-1 formation I will be using. I have one area that needs improving and it is the attack. However, being very contradictive I went out and bought Diego Poyet on a free transfer and relatively low wages. A young star with amazing potential could be a great investment for the future. I aim to send him out on loan to gain some valuable experience and hopefully he can be a regular for us next season. My next investment was a risk but I had a good feeling so I went and signed Dimitar Berbatov to a 12-month deal. With just the one striker position available in the squad, there will be plenty of competition for that all important starting position. Manu Molina was the next and final signing. Molina is signed to the rotation role incase any of my centre-midfielders are unavailable. At only 24 years old, the Spaniard has a bright future ahead of him at Hamburger SV. I loaned out 2 youth players with average potential just to give them game time and then I eagerly awaited the first game of the season…

I played 9 friendlies over the course of pre-season. I ended the pre-season with a record of 7 wins and 2 draws. Mostly playing against Austrian opposition due to the training camp set in Austria but I also played the likes of Valencia and Bayern Munich. The first competitive game of the season was the first round of the DFB-Pokal against a Regional level team which was a comfortable victory. We dominated the game and rightly came out on top to progress comfortably into the next round.

Game 1: Hertha BSC

The first game of the Bundesliga season came against Hertha BSC. A tough opponent for the opening game. I was aiming for a point out of this game, a valuable point in what would be a long season. However, when Djourou scored to put us 1-0 ahead things were looking good. By half-time we had 56% possession, dominating the game on the attack and in defence. Hertha had managed a measly 2 shots compared to our 7 after the first 45 minutes. My plan was working… keep the ball and be patient. It looked like it was heading for a 1-0 victory until we hit Hertha on the break and the debutant Berbatov slotted in past the keeper to make it 2-0 to Hamburger SV. But it wasn’t quite over there. 77 minutes played, corner to Hamburger SV… Berbatov rose like a salmon out of fresh water to head the ball past the keeper and make it 3. A comfortable victory on the opening day of the season was exactly what we needed. The players were delighted, the fans were ecstatic and I was over-the-moon. An utter destruction of Hertha BSC on my first game as manager of this great historic club. The future is looking bright…

Form (Last 5): W

Game 2: Hoffenheim

Gameday 2, away to Hoffenheim. The squad morale was great coming off the back of a comfortable 3-0 victory against Hertha BSC. However, all of that morale was shortly washed away as Hoffenheim took the lead in the 9th minute through Andrej Kramaric. Things were looking up when Kostic equalised in the 21st minute through a lovely placed shot into the far bottom right corner. But it was Hoffenheim who were controlling the game and they got their reward shortly after half-time as Douglas Santos turned the ball into his own net making it 2-1 to Hoffenheim. Matters got worse for us just moments later as Albin Ekdal was sent off for a second bookable offence. Hoffenheim continued to run the game with the extra man being a huge factor. The game was over when Kramaric scored his second of the game. The ex-Leicester City striker got the second goal he deserved after tearing our defence apart all game. The super-sub, Pierre-Michel Lasogga, scored a mere consolation goal seven minutes from time to give the HSV fans hope of a comeback. Unfortunately their hopes were crushed when the Eduardo Vargas made it a fantastic fourth for Hoffenheim with a 30-yard screamer. A long, hard fought game for HSV and a long journey home for the 3,015 fans.

Form (Last 5): WL

Game 3: RB Leipzig

Next we came up against the ‘most hated team in Germany’. Aaron Hunt and Lewis Holtby came into the line-up replacing Manu Molina and the suspended Albin Ekdal. Leipzig got off to a flying start when Naby Kieta beat Adler at his near post after a superb pass from Timo Werner. Poor defending and poor goalkeeping was really starting to cost us. Werner scored Leipzig’s second of the match in the 13th minute with a well-placed header from a corner. We looked down and out of it until Berbatov scored yet again after a defence-splitting through ball from Aaron Hunt sent the goal-hungry Hungarian 1-on-1 and he finished it calmly. We were just starting to get back into the game until on the stroke of half-time yet another superb pass from Werner put his strike partner Yussuf Poulsen through on goal and Poulsen made the most of it. 3-1 to Leipzig going into half-time and it stayed that way. We didn’t look in the game anymore after the third goal and as a result lost a second game on the bounce in front of a packed Volksparkstadion. We need results and we need them now or else this season was doomed.

Form (Last 5): WLL