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Hard work on and off the ball

It rained non-stop during their first training session in Längenfeld (Ötztal), but that didn't dampen the spirits of the Hamburg players.

Alongside the obligatory fitness practice, coach Martin Jol had the squad working on their ball skills. "That's our philosophy", Jol said afterwards, while adding, "there will be plenty of off-the-ball work, too. It's all part and parcel of training." The first such session will be on Tuesday - at seven in the morning. "Then it's off into the woods for 45 minutes of interval training."

Striker Ivica Olic will be partaking of that too, having joined up with the rest of the squad on Monday evening. Olic's wife Natali has just given birth to a daughter, Lara.

Castelen in part-training

The recuperating Romeo Castelen will continue his build-up training with athletics coach Markus Günther. Jol meanwhile expressed his pleasure with the two new faces in the squad, former SC Freiburg duo Jonathan Pitroipa and Dennis Aogo.

"Aogo is still young, but he's got stuck right in, he's really engaged. As for Pitroipa, the coach has clearly been impressed by his "special qualties", his dribbling and his pace: "When Didi told me half the league was after him I thought he was going a bit over the top. But it's true, the lad is really good - we should all just make sure we don't get too carried away."

Bundesliga - Die offizielle Webseite

What do you guys think? Can Martin Jol lead HSV again into a top 4 finish?

They were strong at some period last season, but then their form dropped.