Derby Week: Step 2…well, why don’t we just move onto Step 3, OK?

By: Mark | February 18th, 2011

HSV Bremen logos

I’m gonna keep this short. HSV lost the Hamburg Derby to St. Pauli on Wednesday by a score of 1-0. Huge disappointment, and another display of HSV’s lack of scoring prowess right now.

So yes, as the commenter’s pointed out on the last post, Step 2: Failure. Time to get over it and get ready for Step 3 tomorrow: Werder Bremen!

This is normally the big derby for HSV, but this year it has been overshadowed somewhat by the St. Pauli match. That doesn’t mean it won’t be exciting when Bremen square off against our team in Hamburg.

Watching the St. Pauli match, and the last few Hamburg games in general, it has become abundantly clear that this team is having trouble scoring. They have won 3 games since the winter break, each by scores of 1-0, and they have lost two games by scores of 2-0 and 1-0. So as good as the defense has been, only allowing 3 goals in five games, the offense have only scored 3 goals as well! This is crazy considering how many strikers/attackers the team is carrying right now, namely:

Ruud van Nistelrooy
Mladen Petric
Paolo Guerrero
Anis Ben-Hatira
Heung Min Son
Eljero Elia
Jonathan Pitroipa
Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting

You can also throw in Marcell Jansen, Piotr Trochowski and Tonay Torun into that list as players who generally play in an attacking midfield role. That’s 11 healthy players right there! So assuming the majority of these players do have the skill to put balls in the net, or at least create chances, I think the problem is likely coming down to coaching, squad selection, formations, and tactics.

I don’t know how this can be fixed on a short term basis, but Armin Veh has been frustratingly playing essentially the same lineup since the break, with just a couple minor changes each game. He seems to have his favorites right now, or is not happy with the other players in practice, but I think he needs to suck it up and give the other guys a chance.

I’m concerned the 4-4-2 formation is not working and Hamburg’s attacks have become somewhat predictable. Defensively they have been solid, with a great back four, goalkeeper, and defensive midfield in Jarolim and Ze Roberto. The problem is with the two defensive mids, they are not moving up enough to create attacking plays, which means most of the attacks have to come from the wings. This means you get some runs from the fullbacks and wingers, with the odd pass between the two, but all it usually results in is a cross into the middle, or the odd corner kick. This has rarely worked, and in the case of the last match, St. Pauli usually had like 8 guys in the box to defend against these predictable crosses, so every Hamburg attack was futile. I think it’s time to switch to a formation that includes a proper “Number 10″ central attacking midfielder to try to set up some plays in the middle of the field.

We know the 4-2-3-1 formation bit the big one at the beginning of the season, because it left us with a lone striker, and another striker trying to play as a number 10 out of their natural position. So I think we need 2 strikers up front. The only way to get 2 strikers and a number 10 that I can see is either a 4-1-2-1-2 (diamond midfield), or a 4-1-3-2. Both of these will require Armin Veh to trust his defensive back-line a bit more, and just use 1 defensive mid. Jarolim can do it. Maybe Kacar. Ze Roberto possibly, but he might venture up a bit too much to create some holes for the opposition to exploit. The point is, get some attacking options and go for it!

The other thing that’s been bothering me is how much Hamburg are trying to keep possession of the ball, by slowing building from the back. Possession is great, but they take so much time in doing it, that a defensive minded team like St. Pauli have so much time to get everyone back to defend! No wonder Hamburg have no attacking options – the whole other team is back in front of them and there’s no room to make any passes! OK, pass it back to Frank Rost then, and start over…rinse and repeat. It’s not like we don’t have any fast players – I think they need to take some more chances with quick runs, passes, and attempting the odd through ball, even if it means getting called offside 10 times. Eventually one will get through!

So, what changes will we see for tomorrow’s match? Well, here’s a preview from the HSV website (use google translate to read it):

http://www.hsv.de/saison/meldungen-saison/bundesliga/saison-20102011/23-spieltag/genug-geredet/

It looks like Armin Veh is making some changes already based on this possible lineup:
Rost – Demel, Kacar, Mathijsen, Aogo – Westermann, Zé Roberto – Pitroipa, Son – Guerrero, Petric

and the subs:
Drobny, Jarolim, Tesche, Trochowski, Ben-Hatira, Jansen, van Nistelrooy

So, it looks like Veh is changing up the attack completely, and even pushing Westermann into the midfield with Jarolim out, and Kacar at central defense. Could work, Westermann has shown some vision in getting some plays started, and maybe his presence in midfield might spark something. It looks like another 4-4-2, or a 4-2-2-2 lineup, but at least we get 3 new attackers in Pitroipa, Son and Guerrero. Also notable is the player not on the bench – Eljero Elia is missing! Is Armin Veh really going to keep him out of the squad in place of someone like, Robert Tesche?!?! That is crazy talk.

I still wish Troche would get another shot. He played well filling in for Jarolim before the winter break, and he is the only player who considers himself as a number 10 type player, but he never gets a good shot at it. There must be something going on behind the scenes we don’t know about. If Troche won’t be used in that role or is on his way out of the club, I think it’s time for Hamburg to find a player to fit this position. The rumours of Rafael van der Vaart that pop up every summer would be great, but alas he is doing very well at Tottenham right now, so that is only a pipedream.

Ok, so this post ended up a lot longer than I planned, but once I get writing everything starts coming out. What do you think of my suggestions above, and do you have any other ideas of formations and who should make the starting squad? I’m looking forward to Derby Week Step 3 tomorrow, and keeping my fingers crossed!