Flawed cup win: 3 things HSV must do better in Dortmund | OneFootball

Duty fulfilled, the first hurdle cleared. With an ultimately comfortable 3–0 win at SC Verl, HSV booked their place in the second round of the DFB-Pokal and made a successful start to their competitive campaign.

After a poor opening spell in which the third-division side looked the better team, HSV only found their footing toward the end of the first half. Albert Grønbæk put the favorites on course for victory, before the Dane and youngster Louis Lemke struck right after the break with a quickfire double to all but seal the result.

In the end, the Bundesliga side won the match in the way you would expect from a favorite. Even so, the performance in East Westphalia also revealed a number of weaknesses. Against the team sitting second from bottom in the 3. Liga, that had no consequences. On Saturday (6:30 p.m.), however, things are likely to look very different against Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund. Three things in particular stood out in Verl.

HSV lacked the necessary precision in possession

Especially in the opening phase, HSV were surprisingly error-prone. The team gave the ball away frequently during the build-up, with passes often too inaccurate or lacking enough pace. After the match, coach Merlin Polzin explained that the many long balls against Verl’s aggressive pressing had indeed been part of the game plan. At the same time, he admitted: “The passes didn’t come off the way we had intended.”

In fact, neither the short passing game nor the long switches of play looked particularly polished. Against Dortmund, HSV will have to be much cleaner in possession if they want to play their way out of pressure and enjoy longer spells on the ball themselves.

More compactness needed in defense

The team’s defensive display is also unlikely to have fully convinced those in charge. The fact that HSV, despite being outnumbered in both shots and touches in the opposition penalty area, did not allow a single clear-cut chance was first and foremost down to the lack of cutting edge in Verl’s attack.

Photo: IMAGO

Notably, the gaps between the different units were repeatedly too large. The northern Germans applied too little pressure to the ball carrier and allowed the third-division side to advance in controlled fashion into dangerous areas on several occasions. Against the high individual quality of Dortmund’s attack, such a loose spatial setup would likely be punished much more severely. HSV will need to defend more compactly and work more aggressively off the ball.

Some new signings still need time

With Martin Adeline and Patson Daka, Polzin put his trust in two new attacking signings from the start. Both showed glimpses of their quality, but overall had only limited influence on the game. The exceptions: Daka set up Grønbaek for the opener, while Adeline played a key role in winning the ball back before the third goal. Beyond that, however, the newcomers remained largely quiet.

Together, they managed just 78 touches, and only one of those came in the opposition penalty area. Daka in particular had already shown promising signs during pre-season. In Verl, however, it became clear that both attacking players still need a little more time to fully settle into the team’s patterns of play.

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