Does this explain the goal drought? HSV are well adrift at the bottom | OneFootball

It is a problem that has plagued HSV throughout the entire season: Merlin Polzin’s team simply scores too few goals!

With just 34 goals, the Rothosen currently have the second-weakest attack in the Bundesliga. Only city rivals FC St. Pauli have been even less threatening, with 26 goals.

This lack of cutting edge cannot be explained by poor finishing alone. HSV do have an expected goals value of 38.91 and, statistically speaking, should therefore have scored almost six more times. But even that figure is the second-worst in the league. In plain terms, that means Hamburg are not only wasting a string of good chances, they are also creating too few clear-cut opportunities overall.

That is not especially unusual for a promoted side that had previously spent seven years in the 2. Bundesliga. Teams in that category often lack the necessary punch in possession against established Bundesliga clubs. That makes alternative weapons all the more important — traditionally, those are mainly counter-attacks and set pieces.

At least HSV are delivering in transition play. Ten goals from counter-attacks rank third in the league. Only Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen are better in that respect. It is a very different story, however, when it comes to dead-ball situations. So far, corners, free-kicks and throw-ins have produced only five goals. That puts the Hanseatic club bottom of the league in this statistic. Even second-from-bottom VfB Stuttgart have seven goals.

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Possible reasons for HSV’s set-piece slump

All the more surprising: the poor return can hardly be put down to a lack of preparation. On the Elbe, people are more than aware of the importance of dead-ball situations. Even under former coach Tim Walter, HSV employed their own set-piece coach in Filip Tapalovic. Under Steffen Baumgart, the current coaching duo of Merlin Polzin and Loic Fave were even explicitly responsible for this area. They were supported by a dedicated working group with coaches from the youth academy. According to a Bild report at the time, Polzin invested 890 euros of his own money in Daniel Ackermann’s specialist book “Set Pieces in Professional Football.”

How successful that work can be was shown last season. In the 2. Bundesliga, HSV scored an impressive 17 set-piece goals — the second-best total in the league!

So why the collapse? One reason that should not be overlooked is the individual quality within the squad. Delivery specialists like Fabio Vieira or Miro Muheim often lack that final bit of precision with their crosses. Too many set pieces end up coming to nothing.

Nur die Raute – All the news about HSV

Then there is the profile of the players on the receiving end. Purely in terms of height, centre-backs and strikers are usually the best headers of the ball on a football pitch. But for a long time, HSV relied on player types such as Damion Downs or Ransford Königsdörffer, whose greatest strengths are not exactly in the air. By contrast, the towering Robert Glatzel and Yussuf Poulsen played only bit-part roles for different reasons.

At centre-back, Luka Vuskovic is outstanding as an attacking aerial threat. Three of his five goals came from set pieces. Jordan Torunarigha, Warmed Omari and Daniel Elfadli, on the other hand, pose significantly less danger. The same naturally applies to the 1.77 m tall Nicolas Capaldo.

All of these aspects ultimately add up to a sobering set-piece record. Yet given HSV’s shortcomings in possession, an extra goal or two would certainly have come in handy. After all, 1. FC Heidenheim in particular showed impressively in the 2023/24 season what even a promoted team can achieve with outstanding set-piece strength. Thanks in part to 14 goals from dead-ball situations, Frank Schmidt’s side sensationally qualified for the UEFA Conference League that year.

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