As of: February 12, 2024 3:45 p.m
HSV has separated from coach Tim Walter. The management of the second division soccer team no longer trusted the 48-year-old to successfully implement the promotion project. During the guest appearance in Rostock, the previous assistant coach Merlin Polzin looked after the team as head coach.
Merlin Polzin led the training on Monday.
“We have great coaching talent with us,” explained HSV sports director Jonas Boldt on Monday and confirmed that Polzin would “one hundred percent” be the main coach in the away game at FC Hansa Rostock on Saturday (1 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter). “He definitely gets the chance, with full conviction. We want to bring stability and then calmly see what happens in the constellation or perhaps otherwise.”
The young trainer took on the task with “shining eyes and a completely clear ‘yes,'” Boldt reported on his conversation with Polzin, who immediately had an idea about “how we’re going to tackle things here now.” Polzin led the training in the afternoon.
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“Performance fluctuations were too great”
On Monday morning, HSV reacted to the sporting woes of the past few weeks and released Walter three days after the spectacular 3-4 defeat against Hannover 96. After three home defeats in a row, Hamburg are currently in relegation place.
Firing Walter was “definitely not easy” for him, Boldt said. He “built a lot” here and “ignited euphoria in the city.” However, the season’s goal of returning to the Bundesliga stands above all else: “We didn’t want to let the situation collapse. Our fluctuations in performance in the last few games were too great and we lack the complete conviction that we can achieve the necessary balance and stability in our game in this constellation will be achieved in the next few weeks.”
VIDEO: Jonas Boldt: “We didn’t want to let the situation collapse” (7 min)
Tim Walter would have liked to stay
Walter himself thanked “HSV, the office and the extraordinary fans for more than two and a half years of great cooperation” and added: “I would have liked to have contributed further to achieving our season goal together.”
Before Christmas, the coach had already been on the rocks. Then he received another clear order from Boldt and sports director Claus Costa to stabilize his team. However, eight goals conceded in the first two home games of the new year against Karlsruher SC (3:4) and Hannover 96 showed that the coach couldn’t manage it. Mistakes in his Sturm und Drang style of football were repeatedly punished by conceding too many goals and there was a lack of consistency.
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Boldt: “We have to bring the potential back onto the road”
For the 48-year-old, whose contract runs until the end of the season, his term at Hamburger SV ends after more than two and a half years. He came to HSV in the summer of 2021 and finished third twice in the second division. However, he was unable to lead the team to the promotion he had hoped for. In 2022, HSV failed in relegation to Hertha BSC (1:0, 0:2), and last year against VfB Stuttgart (0:3, 1:3).
In addition to Walter, his assistants Julian Hübner and Filip Tapalovic were released with immediate effect. The previous assistant coach Merlin Polzin, who has been part of the Hamburg coaching team for three and a half years, is taking over for the time being.
“We are not going to make a 180-degree change.”
HSV sports director Jonas Boldt
Boldt left it open how the successor to the HSV coaching bench will be regulated in the future. “We are not going to make a 180-degree change,” he said. It’s just “a few adjustments to get the potential back on the road.”
That’s why the decision was made “with complete conviction” in favor of the 33-year-old Polzin and young boss Loïc Favé, who will be his assistant. Polzin, who is currently getting his trainer’s license, has “definitely a chance” of being recommended for more: “No matter what the constellation: Merlin Polzin will definitely play a role.”
Possible candidates: Baumgart and Wicky
Boldt did not comment on possible names for Walter’s successor. “Of course we know the market well and we know what’s on the market and what we want,” he said. We will “hold further discussions” both internally and externally and, at the same time, consider “what possibilities actually exist to move HSV further forward”.
According to media reports, a potential candidate to succeed Walter is Steffen Baumgart. The 52-year-old, who coached 1. FC Köln until the end of 2023, is an avowed HSV fan and is reportedly ready for a commitment in Hamburg. Ex-HSV professional Raphael Wicky, currently under contract with Young Boys Bern, is also being traded. Whoever it is: 13 games remain for the new guy to get the once irrelegable ones up again.
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Boldt himself also comes under pressure
At the same time, the change in coaching also brings Boldt himself into focus: in office since 2019, he has been responsible for four unsuccessful attempts towards the Bundesliga. No matter whether Baumgart, Wicky, Polzin or “Mister X” – the next coach has to fulfill his dream of promotion. Boldt will hardly be able to convey a fifth failure to the powerful HSV supervisory board.
Most successful HSV second division coach
In the past 40 years, there have only been three coaches in Hamburg with a longer tenure than Walter: Ernst Happel (1981-1987), Benno Möhlmann (1992-1995) and Frank Pagelsdorf (1997-2001). Walter scored an average of 1.82 points per game in 103 games, which is the best value in Hamburg’s second division history.
That’s why there were words of praise from Boldt at the farewell: “Tim and his boys lived our HSV, fully identified with the task and the club and played a key role in shaping the path we took. Tim also has much more with his energy and conviction Tasks taken on than usual for a head coach.”
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sports club | 11.02.2024 | 10:50 p.m