Hertha Berlin

In the shape of Márton Dárdai, Prince Boateng, Marco Richter and Stevan Jovetić, Pál Dárdai welcomed four players back for the first team training session of the week ahead of the home game against VfB Stuttgart on Saturday (06.05.23, 15:30 CEST). Only Jessic Ngankam (illness), Tjark Ernst (individual training) and Kélian Nsona (light training) were absent from the 27-man training group which also included the two Bundesliga debutants from the weekend, Ibrahim Maza and Veit Stange.

Pál Dárdai made six changes to the team that started the home game against Bremen, setting up the side in a 4-4-2. Jonjoe Kenny, Filip Uremović and Agustín Rogel came into the team for Peter Pekarík (dropped to the bench), Márton Dárdai (injured) and Marc Kempf (suspended) and made up the back-four with Marvin Plattenhardt. Maximilian Mittelstädt, Jean-Paul Boëtius and Florian Niederlechner also came into the starting eleven for Marco Richter (also injured), Tolga Ciğerci and Derry Scherhant, who both dropped to the bench.

Saturday afternoon at the Olympiastadion did not go the way that the Blue-Whites had hoped it would. Hertha lost 4-2 against SV Werder Bremen on Pál Dárdai’s return to the touchline. “Normally, I can always talk and find answers, but it is difficult to sum it all up right now. I’m a bit lost for words,” explained a disappointed Prince Boateng. “In the end it is just not enough – especially the way we played in the first half. We have to be present from the first minute to the last. We now have to pull together even quicker and tighter because there are still very important games ahead of us.”herthabsc.com has all of the immediate reaction.

Pascal Klemens won the ball with a strong challenge before giving in straight on to Mesut Kesik. He then turned and found Ibrahim Maza upfront, who tried to take an early shot. Those at Hertha training were able to get a good look at lots of young Blue-White talents . The trio belonged to a group of six academy players who took part in first team training at Schenckendorffplatz. Veit Stange, Peter Matiebel and Joel da Silva completed the group of six for a 75-minute training session – the first training session ahead of a particularly challenging away game.

A matchday 30 trip at the end of April to Munich awaits Hertha and head coach Pál Dárdai this weekend, just as it did back in 2015. Back then, our all-time record appearance holder had taken over during the second half of the season as well. We suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat in 2014/15, but need a better result than that this weekend (Sunday, 15:30 CEST). “I can’t claim to know how to win there,” he said jokingly. “I still think we can get a point, though we need to do a few things well – press aggressively, win second balls and defend set pieces properly,” said the Hungarian at the pre-match press conference. Our head coach also discussed…

No current Hertha player has more Bundesliga experience than captain Marvin Plattenhardt, who has played 269 times in Germany’s top flight. The 31-year-old’s debut came for 1. FC Nürnberg on 5th December 2010 and he has been through a lot since then. As a result of this experience, our number 21 is remaining calm despite our tricky situation. “We can’t allow ourselves to be fazed. A lot of us have been in the game long enough to know how to deal with a situation like this,” explained the man with seven Germany caps to his name. “The majority of our bad results have been away from home in recent weeks. We will keep working hard and try to put the things we’re speaking about it into practice. We have to pull ourselves together over the coming weeks and months,” demanded ‘Platte’. We have summarised the most important quotes from his interview after training on Wednesday. He spoke about…

A dream came true in the 66th minute of England and Germany’s game last night. Derry Scherhant appeared for his country for the first time as he made his debut for the U20s in Manchester. Even the final scoreline, a 2-0 defeat, couldn’t ruin the youngster’s night. “Representing my country was an incredible feeling. The most special moment was when the national anthem was on and I realised where I really was,” said our striker. Hannes Wolf’s team put in a decent performance against the reigning world champions. “England are the best team in our age group. They were clinical in front of goal, but we still had our chances,” explained our number 39. “We’ve now got a game against Italy next, which we want to win. I’m looking forward to it and hope I get to play again.”

Sandro Schwarz continued with the 3-5-2 formation that the team have recently been using, for the charity game against Berliner AK. In front of Oliver Christensen’s goal, Agustín Rogel, Márton Dárdai and Marc Kempf made up the back three, with the latter two available to the head coach once again after injury. The wing-back positions were occupied by captain Marvin Plattenhardt and Jonjoe Kenny. The midfield-three was made up of Prince Boateng, Lucas Tousart and Tolga Ciğerci, with Wilfried Kanga and Marco Richter upfront. There were three U23 players on the bench in the shape of Joel da Silva Kiala, Mustafa Abdullatif and Nader Jindaoui.

Three games, two wins, two assists and one goal! From a Hertha perspective, the international games on Friday evening were highly successful – above all for Jessic Ngankam. Hertha’s number 24, like Derry Scherhant just two days ago, celebrated a debut. Having appeared for the Germany U17 and U18 teams, the Berlin-born forward pulled on a Germany U21 shirt for the first time for the 2-2 draw in a friendly against Japan. But that was not all, the centre-forward also manage to successfully cap off his first start with a first goal.

The Hertha players kicked off the week with the first training session ahead of Saturday’s away game against SC Freiburg (1/4/23, 15:30 CEST).