Basler doubles down: another broadside at HSV! | OneFootball

Mario Basler and HSV — that likely won’t turn into a love story again anytime soon. After the former Germany international had already predicted a tough second Bundesliga season for the Rothosen before the season even started, the 57-year-old has now doubled down.

After the opener at Borussia Dortmund, Basler found clear words for Hamburg’s performance. In his podcast “Basler Ballert,” the former pro also took a close look at HSV’s 2-0 defeat at Signal Iduna Park. In doing so, he had nothing good to say about Merlin Polzin’s team.

“HSV were poor. They played badly. It was somehow neither one thing nor the other, and it all seemed so lifeless, so harmless going forward,” Basler said. Hamburg’s attacking display in particular did not sit well with the outspoken pundit. In fact, the northern club posed little threat against Dortmund, especially in the first half, and ultimately deserved to lose.

Basler renews HSV criticism

This means the former Werder pro is sticking to the skeptical assessment he had already expressed before the start of the season. Just a few weeks ago, Basler predicted a tough battle to avoid relegation for HSV and described the departures of key players in particular as “brutal.” He explicitly excluded coach Polzin from his criticism, however.

Photo: IMAGO

After the failed start, Basler also felt there was still work to do when it came to Hamburg’s squad. “Maybe quite a lot still needs to happen in the transfer market,” he said on the podcast, which had already been released on Monday.

Ironically, a great deal has happened since the recording and release: HSV then signed Fabio Vieira and Zakaria El Ouahdi for a combined 17 million euros. In addition, David Möller Wolfe was loaned from Wolverhampton Wanderers with an option to buy. Whether these reinforcements will change Basler’s assessment in the future, however, remains to be seen. The first opportunity to find out will come in the home match against Mainz (Sunday, 3:30 p.m.).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.