Pre-Season Preview: Hamburg SV

Armin Veh Has A Tough Task Ahead With Hamburg.

After a dis­ap­point­ing pre-season loss today to Bun­desliga rivals Schalke, Armin Veh and Ham­burg have their work cut out for them. After fin­ish­ing in a rather unem­phatic 7th place last sea­son, Veh will be look­ing to take the club to Europa League qual­i­fi­ca­tion at min­i­mum this sea­son. By many fans, the appoint­ment of Veh as Ham­burg boss this sum­mer was seen as a poor deci­sion. He will have every­thing to prove to both Ham­burg fans and the Ham­burg board this season.

Key Play­ers

Expe­ri­enced Dutch striker Ruud van Nis­tel­rooy opened the scor­ing against Schalke today, and he will look to con­tinue his goalscor­ing form through­out the sea­son. The Dutch striker’s pedi­gree and class will make him one of the most feared for­ward play­ers for oppo­si­tion defenses, despite his age. Van Nis­tel­rooy will look to lead the club’s scor­ing charts and upset the odds against some of the big boys.

Pacey Dutch winger Eljero Elia will also be piv­otal to the HSV attack this sea­son. His explo­sive accel­er­a­tion and excit­ing drib­bling abil­i­ties make him a night­mare for full-backs. He will con­tin­u­ously look to get in behind the oppo­si­tion back-line, with the option of shoot­ing, pass­ing or crossing.

New­com­ers

Ham­burg have done a good job of sta­bi­liz­ing the rick­ety defense that cost them fur­ther suc­cess last sea­son. They have signed Ger­man inter­na­tional Heiko West­er­mann, Ger­man star­let Den­nis Diek­meier, and young­ster Miroslav Stepanek has returned from loan. Their excel­lent attack is now com­bined with a sturdy back-line, and for this rea­son Ham­burg may be push­ing for a Europa League spot this sea­son with rel­a­tive comfort.

Expec­ta­tions

While Armin Veh has proven to be astute in trans­fer deal­ings, it will be another issue alto­gether to see how he tac­ti­cally moulds this HSV side together. With so many seper­ate parts at Ham­burg now, Veh will need to take con­trol of the dress­ing room and employ a brand of foot­ball that will lead Ham­burg to once again being able to com­pete for a Cham­pi­ons League first. This, though, may take a few sea­sons. A Europa League qual­i­fi­ca­tion spot and a good cup-run would cer­tainly be appre­ci­ated by Ham­burg fans.