Hamburg fires Gisdol as coach, Hollerbach likely successor

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) Hamburger SV fired Markus Gisdol as coach on Sunday following the team's 2-0 defeat at home to last-place Cologne in the Bundesliga.

Hamburg said its board of directors and sporting director Jens Todt came to the decision to let Gisdol go, along with assistant coaches Frank Froehling and Frank Kaspari, and that they were informed on Sunday morning.

Defeat to Cologne the night before was the side's fourth in succession and it left Hamburg just three points off the bottom.

''We believe that a new impetus is urgently needed to achieve the previous goal of survival,'' Hamburg chairman Heribert Bruchhagen said.

Bruchhagen later said a new coach will be presented on Monday, though he declined to confirm media reports that Bernd Hollerbach was to take over in Gisdol's place.

Hollerbach, a midfielder who scored 23 goals in 197 Bundesliga appearances for Hamburg between 1996 and 2004, last coached Wuerzburger Kickers. Hollerbach resigned from the side last year when it was relegated from the second division to the third tier.

''We know who the coach will be but we still need to sort out formal things,'' said Bruchhagen, who said the change will benefit the team's players.

''We're counting on the new coach to dispel the uncertainty,'' Bruchhagen said.

Gisdol had been in charge since September 2016 but never managed to steer the side away from the bottom half of the table. Hamburg - the only side to have played every Bundesliga season since the league's formation in 1963 - finished one point above the relegation zone last season.

While it finished five points clear in 2016, the club needed playoffs to survive in 2015 and 2014.