Hamburger SV currently sit in the first position of the 2. Bundesliga with 20 points out of their first nine games. They drew against Jahn Regensburg and Darmstadt and lost the derby against St. Pauli on the sixth matchday. VfB Stuttgart sit in second position having also collected 20 points. The big difference between the two teams is their goal difference. Hamburger have a value of 14 having scored 21 goals and conceded just seven. On the other hand, Stuttgart have got nine goals against them and were able to score 15 times.
So, their defence, as well as the offence of Hamburg, performed better than in Stuttgart’s case. Besides, Hamburger SV have got the lowest xG-value of the whole league with 0.86. In this tactical analysis, we will look at the defensive system and tactics of HSV which are one of the reasons for their successful season so far.
Formation and players
In this campaign until now Dieter Hecking has used exactly two formations which are quite similar and have just one difference. He lined his team up either in a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-2-3-1 formation and the only variation can be seen in central midfield. Hamburg either played with one defensive midfielder and two more offensive players in front of them. In the other case, they used a double-pivot and a more advanced man behind the single striker.
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