Wednesday musings

By: Chris | November 5th, 2008

Lots of news coming out of Hamburg following yet another 3-0 loss on the road. A little bit of finger-pointing, followed by some introspection, and finally the gaffer questioning his tactics and lineups.

•I have been continually questioning Jerome Boateng’s absence from the starting XI, especially in light of the injuries to Thimothee Atouba and Marcell Jansen. Well, I guess we have our answer: BMJ has “Big plans with him, which he knows well. . .” Jol says that because he has Trochowski on the right side in the midfield, he feels that he needs to play Guy Demel at right back. OK, but what about left back? As many readers of this blog may or may not already know, despite all of my travel to Germany, I still speak very little German. So I didn’t catch the last bit in the linked article above about why Jol feels that Boateng can’t play left back, and the phrases used don’t translate well either. Can somebody help a brother out?

•As previously noted, Nigel de Jong and Glass Joe Marcell Jansen (OK-the Glass Joe reference comes from a video game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, circa 1989. Glass Joe was the first opponent in a game called “Mike Tyson’s Punchout,” and as his name suggests, he was quite frail and easily knocked out. Kinda like Jansen. But I digress. . .) returned to training this week and Jansen is set to go for Saturday’s match at The ‘Bank versus Dortmund. De Jong and the team medical staff will make a decision on his status following Thursday’s training session. I have mentioned that matches versus Dortmund in Hamburg have a special place in my heart, and I am praying that HSV feel the same way. Their record at home in the Bundesliga–4 victories, 1 draw, zero defeats, 9 goals scored and 4 conceded–this year suggests that they should be able to pull it off . . .

•Seems that Frank Rost is tired of getting goals scored on him but that he was largely to blame for 2 of the goals (the first 2) versus Hannover. BUT, he also decries the fact that HSV suffers from a collective loss of focus in road games.

•It seems that Jol is starting to lose patience with Thiago Neves’ lack of progress adjusting to the Bundesliga. Neves has only come on at as late substitute in the matches versus Leverkusen and Köln back in September. Jol says that the Neves he sees right now is not the same Neves he saw in Brazil. Jol points to Alex Silva as an example of what it takes to get into the starting XI.

•Jol discusses the state of the nation in an interview with Bild. He states that he has considered changing his tactics by putting a more defensive player in the midfield, but that there is no one on the bench who could fulfill that role who is more talented than Piotr Trochowski, Mladen Petric or Paolo Guerrero.

He also states that Bastian Reinhardt and Joris Mathijsen had really bad games versus Hannover and Hoffenheim respectively. And he lastly declares that the defense must be more mobile and push forward more. I agree with the first point and COMPLETELY disagree with the second. Regardless, look for Alex Silva to start taking more starts in the central defense, probably for Mathijsen. I’m thinking that Mathijsen may have a case of dead legs, given that he played approximately 50 matches for HSV last season, plus Euro qualifiers for Holland, then Euro matches for Holland, then had a WHOLE month off before the start of the Bundesliga and the UEFA Cup runs.

•Former gaffer Huub Stevens weighs in saying the side is just as good as last season (less VDV) and that HSV has added more talent. He just doesn’t know what the problem is. In the same vein, Jol questions whether the tactic of sending four players forward negatively affects the pressure on the defense, particularly compared to last season when only VDV and Guerrero were going forward.

•And speaking of Van der Vaart, what the hell’s happened in Madrid? Since his hattrick versus Sporting Gijon, Rafa’s been on the bench for the most part. He’s really been getting it in the Spanish sporting papers, particularly following a crucial error in the last La Liga match versus Almeria. We’ll see if he gets in the match tonight versus Juventus.