Borussia Dortmund will be looking for points when they face struggling Hamburg, seeking an upturn of fortune, at the Volksparkstadion on Saturday. Thomas Tuchel’s newly minted Borussia Dortmund have slipped to sixth place and are eight points off the pace at the top, due to a horrible October form.
The Black and Yellows have failed to register a win in the whole of last month, dropping points in four consecutive match days and are on a three-match drawing streak right now. They have never gone on to win the league after picking up only 15 points in nine games. Last week, the team struggled to beat fierce rivals FC Schalke and can probably count themselves lucky not to beaten by Weinzierl’s mastery.
Hamburg, on the flip side, are on their way down to the 2.Liga! Nevermind, the dinosaurs are still yet to clinch a win so far this campaign. Scoring just two goals, Hamburg are yet to find a goal since matchday two. Gathering only two points, the red shorts are firmly rooted to the bottom of the table along with FC Ingolstadt.
Markus Gisdol was announced as the new coach following the sacking of Bruno Labaddia after a 1:0 defeat to Bayern after matchday six. He is still seeking his first goal for Hamburg under his management.
Stats for HSV make horrible readings too. They have conceded the most shots (144), registered the least number of shots (75) and worst shots plus minus (-69) along with a poor conversion rate of 2.7%, also worst in the league and pretty much matches the relegation pre-requisites. Hamburg have had just 11 shots on target the whole season.
That picture is enough to explain dusk of the dinosaurs. While most of the players have struggled with form, the newer signings too failed to shine for HSV. 14m euro transfer Filip Kostic has created a total of nine chances this season, enough to get the spot for the best chance creator in Hamburg but comes nowhere close to his last season’s tally of 77 chances created for second division side VfB Stuttgart (If you know what I mean).
Bobby Wood is Hamburg’s only scorer of their season tally of two goals but the American international is also out of contention against Dortmund due to his three-game suspension for an elbow on Dominik Heintz’s stomach in Hamburg’s latest 3:1 mishap against Cologne last week.
Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, are on the back of a boring 1:0 win against Sporting. A match which brought in a ton of speculation, no not because Adrian Ramos scored but because of the suspension of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabonese international was suspended by the club for travelling to Italy during the Champions league week, which is not according to the club rules.
https://twitter.com/LarsPollmann/status/794151545654902784
The broad injury list of Thomas Tuchel is slowly starting to fade away. Last week, both Andre Schurrle and Raphael Guerreiro featured in the draw against Schalke. Guerreiro played the whole 90 minutes against Sporting in midweek while Schurrle played 45 minutes, coming on as a sub for Dembele at half-time.
It will be a special moment for Christian Pulisic, who scored his first senior goal for Dortmund against Hamburg last season, when he became the third youngest scorer for Borussia Dortmund and youngest overseas goalscorer in the Bundesliga. He will be looking to score past HSV once again, after an impressive midweek performance against Sporting.
Sven Bender and Marcel Schmelzer are nearing their return to the pitch while Marco Reus will reportedly be fit and ready to make his comeback against Bayern after the international break per kicker. Meaning Neven Subotic and Erik Durm remain the only long term absentees for Dortmund.
Predicted Lineups
Hamburger SV: (4-4-2 formation) René Adler; Ashton Götz, Johan Djourou, Cleber Reis, Douglas Santos; Filip Kostic, Gōtoku Sakai, Lewis Holtby, Matthias Ostrzolek; Gianluca Waldschmidt, Pierre-Michel Lasogga.
Borussia Dortmund: (4-1-4-1 formation) Roman Bürki; Lukasz Piszczek, Sokratis, Marc Bartra, Raphael Guerreiro; Julian Weigl; Christian Pulisic, Gonzalo Castro, Mario Götze, André Schürrle; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Prediction: Hamburg 0:2 Dortmund
