Monday, May 03, 2021
The untrainable HSV
With the dinosaur it gets more and more miserable
By Tobias Nordmann
The list of coaches who did not manage to get Hamburger SV back into the 1st Bundesliga has been expanded to include the next name. In addition to Hannes Wolf and Dieter Hecking, Daniel Thioune is now also there. Will he be the last?
Horst Hrubesch did not mention the word ascent. But of course his first statement as the new coach of Hamburger SV was about exactly the thing against which the club has developed a chronic phobia. In the third attempt, the proud Hanseatics threaten to miss their return to the first Bundesliga. Although the situation in the current corona-inclined table does not look dramatic, Hamburg is in third place, which would mean reaching the relegation.
At least that is how it should be said. The deficit is already five points on the direct promotion ranks. And should Holstein Kiel, which has three fewer games due to quarantine, win all or get two wins and a draw, then HSV would be five points behind the relegation.
The former Bundesliga dinosaur would face the third “Deppen-Déjà-vu” in a row. The industrial accident (relegation) would become the norm (regular guest in league two). Well, there is still an opportunity to take countermeasures, even if only with the support of others, especially Kiel. In order not to have to give in to the embarrassment of screwing up a mistake by the competitor, Hrubesch explains to his player the urgency of the situation again in his absence: “We have to do everything we can to straighten out the crap we screwed up.” There are opportunities to do so against 1. FC Nürnberg (12th), against Eintracht Braunschweig (16th) and VfL Osnabrück (17th).
Before the ascent comes the panic
It’s amazing how much the Hamburg years in league two look alike. The closer you get to the ascent, the more panic it gets on the lawn. All the qualities that the team has every year suddenly disappeared. Just go away. Inexplicable. But it was never as dramatic as on June 28th last year when the club was humiliated at home with 1: 5 (!) By SV Sandhausen. And by ex-player Dennis Diekmeier, who had been ridiculed for years as the most harmless player in professional football, and who scored a spectacular goal in the 93rd minute on this legendary afternoon, the second of his professional career. Hamburger SV has never been more idiotic. Well, Hrubesch will certainly not have this label pinned on. No matter how it turns out for him. Time is short and the situation is complicated. He is also a legend in the club. And nobody will attack this legend.
If it fails again, however, it should be tight for sports director Jonas Boldt. Incidentally, he justified the decision made on Monday morning as follows: “We saw it as imperative to make a major adjustment. In the end, Daniel’s manager was no longer available to this extent. In the end, the conviction was no longer there that the construct with team and trainer was no longer there still works. “
In any case, the release of the coach is now the last chance for the sports director to bring about the urgently needed change of mood. Actually, the 39-year-old wanted to finally ensure calm and continuity in Hamburg and give Thioune, who was brought in as a developer, the time to build a team with strong prospects. This became more and more sad in the second half of the season. Although the team showed their potential again and again, they also showed that they simply weren’t up to the (promotion) pressure mentally. This is expressed in numbers: In 14 games so far in the second half of the season, HSV has only won three (!) And 16 points.
Hrubesch now wants to start his work at this sensitive point: “First of all, it’s about clearing the heads of the players. Unfortunately, the team has often played under value recently.” The team has “a different quality, which we now have to bring to the field in the remaining games. I will have a lot of conversations, listen in and try to set a few accents.”
Regardless of the outcome of the season, the club will have to answer a difficult question over the next few weeks. Who can actually train this HSV successfully? It won’t be Hrubesch. He will retire to the youth academy after the 34th matchday. There he is the director. And it will stay that way. He explained that as clearly as Jupp Heynckes once did when he left FC Bayern. The people of Hamburg would do well to rely on the 70-year-old’s word.
Who should fix it?
Well who should do it? And how? In the past three years, three completely different approaches have failed: the one with the talented Hannes Wolf, the one with the experienced Dieter Hecking and now the one with the innovative Thioune. He had forced his separation himself when he said sentences after the draw at Karlsruher SC last week that were interpreted as surrender.
Now these three line up in a miserable record of Hamburger SV. Since May 2011, so for ten years, 17 (!) Coaches have tried more or less desperately to stabilize the club (the interim solutions are included). Which never succeeded in the long term. Despite expensive and sometimes strong teams. Sure, it could be due to the karma of the club. Of course it’s nonsense. But somehow it is also clear that the burden of the great past, the immense pressure of the environment, the ridicule of failure (by fans of other clubs), what does with the players, not only motivates and drives them.
The example of FC Schalke 04 shows how much footballers can break from the immense expectations and the desperation of the lack of success. There the squad was certainly not well put together, the quality of the squad around a national player like Suat Serdar or the highly talented Amine Harit Nevertheless, at least once could have been enough for the sovereign relegation. No, it should have been enough. Now the club shares the fate of the Hamburgers. And there I can observe very closely what happens when calm and continuity are torpedoed by the nervousness of the environment. Incidentally, there is probably already a candidate for the new season in Hamburg: Steffen Baumgart. This is what the “kicker” reports. The courted painter. Another approach. And again the hope that it will finally work.
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