Behrami: Teamwork key for Hamburg

Hamburg must replicate the togetherness they showed to deny Bayern Munich if they are to find success this season, Valon Behrami has stated.

Josef Zinnbauer replaced Mirko Slomka as Hamburg coach after starting their Bundesliga campaign with a draw and two defeats.

That proved too much for the Imtech Arena hierarchy, who also had to endure a miserable 2013-14 which almost saw the club drop out of the German top flight for the first time.

However, Zinnbauer’s arrival heralded an instant improvement as they prevented the champions from scoring a goal for the first time in an astonishing 75 Bundesliga games, drawing 0-0 on home soil.

And with another chance to impress away to Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday, former Napoli man Behrami has called for unity from his colleagues, as well as targeting their first league goal of the season.

He told Bild: “Against Bayern we all worked together. This must be our priority at the moment.

“If we do that, we can achieve something. If not, we have no chance. With just individual quality we cannot exist.

“The new coach did not have much time to implement his concept. He has worked a lot on our minds, that was important.

“After two defeats we needed confidence. The week before the Bayern game was not so easy for us.

“The performance was only the minimum. That is not enough. With a good mentality you have to win the game. It was a small step to become a team. But we are still after four games without a goal. We need to work.”