Dubai: Hamburg’s sporting director Peter Knabel is using Wednesday’s friendly against Manchester City in Al Ain as a test to see if The Red Shorts need to make any more forays into the January transfer market.
The German side are already on the lookout for a striker after Pierre-Michel Lasogga injured his thigh, but their purse strings may now have to stretch to cover midfield too, after Tottenham Hotspur loanee Lewis Holtby broke his collarbone in a 3-2 friendly win over Eintracht Frankfurt, also in Al Ain, last week.
“We normally don’t make a lot of January transfers but we have a problem and we will look to see in Wednesday’s friendly against Manchester City if there’s anything we have to do,” said Knabel.
“We are looking for a striker but we may also have to find alternatives in midfield now too. Other players will get a chance to play and Lewis [Holtby] will only miss five or six matches. If we bring in an alternative it may influence the hierarchy of the team so we have to be sensible. We’ll see if there is someone on the market, without reducing the importance of the injured player.
“But we also have a lot of confidence in our other players too, so hopefully someone will take their chance against City, do the job, and develop his career with us.”
Khabel said he hoped struggling Hamburg’s winter break in Dubai had prepared them for a relegation dogfight, with their second half of the season starting at home to Cologne on January 31.
“There are ten teams all fighting against relegation who have more or less the same quality,” he said. “But we hope to build upon this good foundation for the second half of the season.
“We have to save ourselves as early as possible, we don’t speak of Europe. We haven’t won two matches in a row for almost two years.
“When I say we have to stabilise it counts for every sector, because the Bundesliga is really competitive and it is dangerous to lose balance here. We are working to get balance and get a hold of the league at the earliest moment possible.”
