Wolfsburg Vs Hamburg: Preview
Wolfsburg start life without McLaren
Pierre Littbarski will take the Wolfsburg team out of the tunnel in his first game incharge of the club as his side takes on a Hamburg side that is coached by former Wolves coach Armin Veh. Last week, Wolfsburg dismissed Bundesliga’s first English coach
and manager Dieter Hoeness admitted that it was a mistake to make McLaren coach of Wolfsburg. McLaren tried his best to adapt to life in Germany and had to deal with some people who still hadn’t recovered from the shock of winning the Bundesliga in the 2008-09.
‘Litti’ is a temporary replacement for the former Middlesborough coach but he is very famous within the Wolves team. He is one of Cologne’s greatest player for whom he scored 116 goals during his playing days. Littbarski is the 4th coach of Wolfsburg
since Felix Magath departed for Schalke. It has been suggested that Martin Jol, Huub Stevens and Ralf Rangnick are all in contention of replacing Steve McLaren. Hans Meyer could also take up the position as coach if Littbarski struggles to give results.
In a bid to win his players’ respect, Littbarski overturned Brazilian playmaker Diego’s fine of 100k Euros insisting that a one-game ban was enough for a punishment. The ban on Diego was McLaren’s last act as a coach when Diego totally defied orders and
took a penalty that he missed in the Hannover derby which Wolves lost. Littbarski refused to hit out at his former head coach and said that he will not criticize the work done by Steve McLaren. “It was important for me to talk with him. We discussed a few
things and wished each other good luck.”
Hamburg haven’t played a game in 2 weeks. The reason was mostly the doing of Hamburg itself. They made a decision to lay down a new surface and it turned out to be a PR and sporting disaster as heavy rain in Hamburg destroyed the pitch. The game against
St Pauli was cancelled due to this but now the match will be played on Wednesday. Many people believe that Hamburg should have been docked 3 points because of their mismanagement.
Hamburg haven’t done too bad this season but after two wins against Schalke and Frankfurt they lost to Nuernberg. Armin Veh is aiming for a European place and knows that the next two games are winnable. “In order to meet our objective of finishing in the
first five, we must be successful in this game. It is difficult for us to analyse Wolfsburg. You are not exactly sure how they will play and how much they will look to change.”
Veh has a point to prove after he struggled to lift Wolves after Felix Magath left the club as a title winner. The last time these two sides met, Hamburg won 4-2 and it was one of the best performances of Hamburg this season. Hamburg is Germany’s second
biggest club in terms of revenue generation. Ruud van Nistelroy has finally decided that he will stick with Hamburg after initially expressing his desire to re-join Real Madrid while Dennis Aogo last week hit out at the club management for their lack of enthusiasm
in building the team. So, HSV will be very glad to finally get back on the pitch.
Prediction
In his first game incharge , Littbarski will want to grind out a good result at home and it seems that the departure of Steve McLaren may be the tonic that Wolfsburg need right now. Hamburg have been pretty decent of late but it looks pretty hard to get
3 points out of a Wolves side that is desperate to bring back the glory days.