The Bundesliga restarts today after the winter break and much attention will be on Hamburg. Last year Thomas Doll's team achieved 3rd place in the German top flight to qualify for this season's Champions League. This was a considerable improvement on the previous year's mid-table position and there was a general expectation that season 2006/07 would be a memorable one for HSV.
Well, it has certainly been memorable to date. Hamburg sit second bottom of the Bundesliga with only one victory in 17 games and they exited the Champions League at the group stage with their only points coming in their final game when they were already eliminated. 2 wins in 23 games!! In addition, the team looks physically shattered after being the fittest team in Germany last year.
There are potentially some parallels here with the situation with Bayer Leverkusen between seasons 2001/02 and 2002/03 (for details see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/01/fundamentals-drugs-in-football.html).
The northerners have had six weeks to recuperate and Saturday's visit to Arminia Bielefeld will be monitored closely by fans and traders alike.
