Fink hoping for big improvements

Hamburg coach Thorsten Fink has called on his players to show more resilience in the upcoming Bundesliga season.

Fink took over as Hamburg boss in October last year after Michael Oenning was sacked for losing five of the club’s first six league games of the 2011/12 season.

The northern club barely improved under Fink, however, and won just one of their last 13 games of the season to finish 15th, only one place and five points above the relegation zone.

In the lead-up to Hamburg’s first game of the new season, Fink has called on his players to maintain their composure when things do not go their way.

“We have to leave negative things behind us,” Fink said.

“We aren’t small kids.

“They are professionals and they have to look forward.

“You have to be able to handle negative experiences.

“As I said, I really aim to do so – negatives don’t gnaw away at my self-confidence so I hope my team notices this.”

Hamburg host Nuremberg on Saturday and Fink is convinced he has the players to succeed.

“We have a team which is strong enough to beat Nuremberg, so we can go out there with confidence,” Fink said.

“We have some international players; Markus Berg for example started for Sweden last week.

“We do have good players; we have (Artjoms) Rudnevs up our sleeve.

“He’s also an international player, who has been a top goalscorer.

“There are also others, like (Marcell) Jansen, (Dennis) Aogo, (Heiko) Westermann; all of them have played for Germany.

“So we have a good team.

“We have young and good players who are able to fight (and) now we only have to prove it at the weekend.”