The star of HSV’s flying start: what’s happened to Rayan Philippe? | OneFootball

HSV fans waited in vain for a late surge from their team in the 1:2 defeat to TSG Hoffenheim.

But in the fifth minute of stoppage time, the promoted side suddenly had one last big chance: after a cross from the left, substitute Rayan Philippe found himself with a fairly free header in the middle. The Frenchman himself seemed not to have expected it anymore and sent the ball several meters wide of the goal.

And even though that chance was assigned only a vanishingly small probability of resulting in a goal, it is symbolic of Philippe’s past few weeks. The 25-year-old has been waiting almost three months for a goal and has started only two of the last fifteen matches. Against VfL Wolfsburg (2:1), he was even left out of the squad entirely for performance reasons.

Yet Philippe was one of HSV’s standout players in the early stages of the season. After six matchdays, he already had three goals to his name. The 2.5 million euros that Claus Costa had transferred to Eintracht Braunschweig in the summer seemed to be paying off in full.

“Goalscorer Rayan Philippe shoots and dances his way into HSV hearts,” NDR wrote at the time. Philippe himself described the Rothosen’s transition play as “perfect for the way I play football.”

Photo: IMAGO

Philippe now only a backup option at HSV

A few months later, there is not much sign left of a budding love affair. Quite the opposite: after his only two starts of the second half of the season, against Bayer Leverkusen (0:1) and VfB Stuttgart (0:4), a large number of HSV fans even questioned whether the left-footer is of Bundesliga level.

In fact, Philippe put in a poor performance on both days. Combined, he completed only six of thirteen passes and managed just one shot on the opposition goal. Or in other words: his influence on Hamburg’s attacking play was non-existent.

But why is that? Why has perhaps HSV’s hottest player at the start of the season — still the team’s joint top scorer with five goals, by the way — become almost no factor at all? There are several possible explanations. His omission for the match in Wolfsburg showed that Merlin Polzin is not always fully satisfied with his attitude and effort in training. Overall, however, Philippe is regarded at the Volkspark as professional and team-oriented.

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Another explanation: the summer signing is one of the fastest players in the Bundesliga and his strengths lie above all in transition play. Four of his five league goals have come after counterattacks. He also extended his team’s lead on four occasions. However, in nine of the last ten matches, HSV fell behind — often at an early stage. As a result, the spaces available to attack became much smaller. Philippe’s immense dynamism is far less effective in that kind of setting.

Because the truth is also this: when HSV have to take the initiative themselves and break down a deeper-lying defensive line, the forward has yet to prove he is Bundesliga quality. At times, his vision and speed of decision-making are clearly lacking. On top of that, Philippe does not have the technical ability needed to make the most of the ball in very tight spaces. Over the course of the season, his pass completion rate stands at 69 percent, while his dribble success rate is just 33 percent.

In Hamburg, however, they believe the versatile attacker can still improve in these areas. “I want him, at his age, to learn things that will help us even more over the coming years,” Polzin said in March. “He’s not that old yet.” For the moment, though, the speedster, who is under contract until 2029, is on the outside looking in.

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