Nightmare in Stuttgart: HSV's bitterest realisation! | OneFootball

The 0-4 defeat at VfB Stuttgart laid bare an unvarnished truth for HSV. Without defensive leader Luka Vuskovic, the back line did not look Bundesliga-ready!

Even before the match, the Red Shorts had the best defense of the second half of the season. But there was absolutely no sign of that in the MHP Arena. “We didn’t manage that,” coach Merlin Polzin concluded after a match in which his team was under constant pressure. Stuttgart had “pushed our forward players deep back with good positional play,” explained goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes, who prevented an even heavier defeat with several strong saves.

The structural weakness in the center was particularly obvious. Without the injured Vuskovic, HSV lacked the stability that had increasingly become a key factor in their success over the past months. Warmed Omari in particular had a day to forget and made several mistakes that Stuttgart ruthlessly exploited. His fellow defenders Daniel Elfadli and Jordan Torunarigha did not fare much better either.

Photo: IMAGO

HSV overwhelmed without key players

In addition to Vuskovic, HSV also had to do without left-back Miro Muheim and midfielder Sambi Lokonga in Stuttgart. But Polzin did not want to use the absences as an excuse. “If you want to compete here, you need not only a bit of luck, but also an aggressive and compact performance,” he told DAZN. That exact basic structure had been missing. “We have to acknowledge that, in terms of quality and overall energy, we could not keep up with a top Bundesliga team,” the coach continued.

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The players themselves were also highly critical of their performance. “We should have put up more of a fight,” Elfadli complained. “We talked about that at halftime too, that there was too little emotion in the first half. We invited the opponent in through individual mistakes, and you can’t do that against a top team.”

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