Bor. M'Gladbach - Hamburger SV

The open of Round 4 is an important one for both clubs. Two traditional clubs meet each other but they had an awful start into the Season. The home team expect much more as 3 defeats in a row while almost relegated Hamburg is aiming for a better future but they showed almost the same problems as last Season. Both have to improve a lot and this match could be considers as a not to lose one for both.

No one had expect this difficult start from Bor. M’Gladbach who had a great last Season. The changes were not too heavy, only Kruse und Kramer left the club that they are not able to win matches. But this maybe is a different reason so far. With these two guys they lost very important leader in team which are not so easy to replace at the moment. Also important defensive chief Stranzl was out with injury to begin and his partner Dominguez was also not able to play. This brought them in some dangerous and they have to field two youngsters in central back. Of course they made their job well but they still do not have the experience. Additional many players are searching for the form from last Season or they are running behind their form. Players like Xhaka, Herrmann, Raffael, Johnson and Jantschke stands for success last year but they are far from this form right now. The balance is not the best in team as well. Coach Favre’s system is not really understandable, he plays with no striker although he has some with Drimic and Hrgota in hand but he counts more on offensive midfield players like Herrmann, Hazard, Traore, Hahn and Johnson. With Kruse they had the right player last Season who made the difference in front of the goal but he has to think different now, and maybe find the right balance and play with some striker up front as almost all of their offensive players are less dangerous in front of the goal. No real danger in the box right now. With Herrmann they miss their most dangerous player injured too. What makes it not much easier, maybe a win can bring some of their self confidence and believe in better matches back.
Coach Favre must changes a bit, important defender Stranzl is back form injury after 5 month and should be in starting lineup immediately. Central midfield player Xhaka is suspended what means that Stindl move back and take this part before the central back while Traore could replace injured Hermann. Also in attack some options are there with Drimic or Hahn maybe.

The next difficult Season ahead or what should we say after the first 3 matches. Ok, Hamburg has won one of these 3 games but in Munich they were pathetic as always there, at home to Stuttgart they were dominated from VfB, only the yellow red card for Stuttgart’s Klein allowed Hamburg to return into the game and they realized a lucky win with the late goal from defender Djourou. The last one they were much better and played good, took the lead but they were not able to hold this until the end. After Colonge equalized the pressure was enormous what brought them on the losing way. And with the mistake from Spahic and his foul Cologne got a penalty rewarded which Modeste used to the winning goal. It was seen there that HSV is not able to bring over 90 minutes a constant performance what makes it very difficult for them to be successful in the future. They do not want to have the next awful Season and therefore they singed with Hunt from Wolfsburg a central midfield player who should help for more creativity and ideas in their offensive play to be much more dangerous as recently. Nevertheless Coach Labbadia has a lot of work to do with his team.
In central back they miss Spahic suspended, midfield player Kacar can take this part, Müller is also an option on the wing, maybe for youngster Gregoritsch. In attack Lasogga can get a chance and replace Schipplock there. But the decision is of course by Coach Labbadia.