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Hamburger SV

Coach: Bruno Labbadia

Labbadia did play for Hamburg from 1987 to 1989 playing 41 Bundesliga matches so that he does know the environment he will live and work in.

He did some good job with Leverkusen last season, especially at the beginning of the season his team dominated. But more and more he had conflicts with his team, which indeed is full of young players and the performances got very bad in the second part of the season.

However, he managed to get his club into the domestic league cup final which he lost with Leverkusen.

It will be interesting to see how Labbadia will deal with all the young guys in Hamburg team. He has one advantage of having old experienced players in the team who took over the leader role in the past. Jarolim, Rost, Ze Roberto will lead the young players together with German national team players such as Trochowski and Jansen.

Money spend for transfers: 600.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 20.000.000 €

Balance: -19.400.000 €

Hamburg did invest some money in Marcus Berg and Elia. Last season we saw Hamburg having some striker problems from time to time. Now they did invest in Berg. Elia is something like a new Olic for Hamburg, who left to Bayern.

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Hamburg convinced in their test matches. An incredible good form already which they showed in the T-Home Cup.

Only the big injury of Alex Silva, who was very motivated to play a big role this season, was a bitter aftertaste of the training camp.

Possible line-ups & tactics:












Most likely:
1. 4-4-2 (4-2-2-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,DM,ROM,LOM,ST,ST

Aim set by club:

Top five is the aim of Hamburg. Settle down on top is the long-term aim.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 8/10

Frank Rost is not only a good keeper, he is experienced and has the ability to lead a team. A lot of new keepers are not able to lead a team and motivate them from the position as a goalkeeper. Frank Rost does and his goalkeeper abilities are still good. The only doubts I have is that at some stage his age can be a disadvantage for him. In a few matches last season he showed some weakness in different positions.
Wolfgang Hesl, the second keeper is okay. Can't rate him that good since he did not had many chances to prove himself yet.

Defence: 9/10

I like this defence.
Aogo and Jansen can play as left back. Both still young, talented and with a lot of power to help offense.
Centre back Mathijsen is a real leader as well, a fighter par excellence!
Together with Mathijsen we might see Jerome Boateng who impressed during the U-21 EM. One of the best defenders through out the tournament and he might get his chance for sure now. Only bad aspect is that Alex Silva is injured as mentioned, but they still have Demel as a backup and that's really the advantage of this team. A lot of all-rounder who can jump in for injured players.
As a right back Guy Demel will probably play, if he has to help out as centre back Collin Benjamin [best example of a defence all-rounder] can take his part as a right back.

Almost forgot one. Bastian Reinhardt [centreback] got a new contract even though he has a long-term injury. He comeback during the season and add stability to the defence.

Midfield: 9/10

A lot of experience this year in Hamburg's midfield. New transfer Ze Roberto will add a lot of strength to the team for sure. Elia, Pitropia and Castelen are all great wing players. Fast and with good ball control.
The creative part is done buy Trochowski and probably Ze Roberto-
Defensive midfield work can be done by Rincon, Tavares, Tesche and Jarolim. Jarolim will play for sure and it will depend on the system who will play with him.
Tesche is a good young guy who fights a lot and as I read Tavares did a great job in friendlies as well - but I cannot confirm it since I did not watch him playing.

One thing is sure. Together with Ze Roberto and Elia the strong midfield of Hamburg last season got even more quality. Tesche is a good backup to rest other players, which can be important during a long season.

Striker: 8/10

Mladen Petric and Guerrero are both good strikers. Guerrero more a so called tank striker who feels well when he is close to the goal.

Petric is more the guy who moves back a bit, get the ball a bit far away from the goal and then shot.

Both would fit good together and together with the new Markus Berg, who should be a good striker ["he needs some time to adapt to Bundesliga", coach Labbadia], they can score some goals.

Only problem might be an injury of either Petric or Guerrero together with adapting problems of Markus Berg. But even then, guys like Elia and Trochowski can add some goal danger from midfield easily.

Total: 8.5/10

My prognosis:

In my opinion Hamburg had a good team in last season already. This season they were able to add some more experience into the team which can be very useful during a long Bundesliga marathon.

Difficult to predict everything behind Bayern München really since I see many teams on same level. Hamburg has the chance to get under top 3 with this team, but it is also possible to see them not even under top 5 because the other teams have a lot of quality as well.

I personally think that they will end between second and fifth position at the end of the season.