Football Season Guide

In 2 consecutive seasons Hamburger dramatically missed out on top 3 finish after awful collapses in the final few weeks of the campaigns. In both those season the displays and results for about 29-30 rounds merited promotion. This clearly suggests that it’s more psychological barrier that is stopping the giants from getting back to the top flight than anything else. Just like 1 year ago after the failure coach Dieter Hecking was quickly sacked and Hamburger start fifth consecutive season with new manager at the helm. Daniel Thioune will be the next in line to try and revive the fallen giants. The off-season saw 5 first-team players returning to their parent clubs, including important Fein and Pohjanpalo. Also centre-back Letschert left, meaning at least 3 regulars from 2019/20 are no longer there. They were all replaced with new signings though - Toni Leistner, Klaus Gjasula and Simon Terodde. All of these 3 players are aged 30 and over, with hopes being that their experience will bring better mental toughness too. The new manager seems to prefer using lone centre forward, with Terodde proven force at this level. Also in Hinterseer and Wintzheimer Hamburger have 2 more strikers perfectly capable of having 10+ goals seasons. Yet to be made clear what defensive shape will be used with Hamburger constantly shifting between 3-man and 4-man back line in the first 4 friendlies they played. The attack should be the team’s main strength once again with Kittel and captain Hunt in charge of creating scoring chances for the many potent forwards in the squad. Defensively looked poor in previous years and despite signing 30-year-old centre-back Leistner it’s far from certain that stability at the back will be found quickly. This remains the main area of weakness.