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Bobby Wood officially joins Hannover on loan

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Bobby Wood’s loan move is now official.

Hannover 96 announced on Monday that the club has signed the U.S. Men’s National Team striker on loan from Hamburg with an option to buy. Wood is set to begin training with the Bundesliga club on Tuesday.

“I had very good discussions with the coach and I know what the club is up to, what kind of football to play and what role I can play in it,” Wood said, “and my gut told me it was the right decision to switch to 96. Now I am happy that it has come to that and I am looking forward to getting to know the team tomorrow.”

Wood joins Hannover after a down year with Hamburg that saw the club relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. Wood scored just two league goals for Hamburg in 24 league appearances after scoring five the season prior.

Internationally, Wood has had a bit more of a scoring touch as he’s scored in two of his last three USMNT matches.

“Bobby Wood has exactly the striker profile we’ve defined: a highly talented player who has already proven his potential and is a great fit for us because of his extremely team-friendly playing style and his great willingness to run,” said manager Horst Heldt. “He’s had a difficult time recently, but not long ago half the league was after him, so we’re very happy he made the move to us.”

Comments

  1. I watched over half of Hamburg’s games last year, i know i am a glutton for punishment. That midfield was criminally bad. Wood missed some chances no doubt. But to be fair, the guys they had could not control the ball let alone maintain possession or provide service to the front line. Wood is a striker that runs the channels, works hard in hold up play, but he cant make his own shot most times. He needs to finish his chances like any striker, but judging him based SOLELY on last year is short sided in my opinion.

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    • Soccerway listed six strikers playing for Hamburg last season, those 6 players scored a total of 8 goals. Maybe they were all bad, but seems likely that the system was broken.

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  2. I’ve got a bright idea, after a few rough years in B.1 with barely double digit goals, when my team gets demoted from B.1 to B.2, where I used to pile them up for Union Berlin, I am going to force a loan back to the league where I sucked.

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    • Christian Pulisic 7 goals over the last two seasons, Bobby Wood 7 goals over the last two seasons. I guess CP should just go back to the U19 league where he had success.

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      • You suggesting Pulisic is a striker? The numbers mean different things in different spots.

      • What if I think the Realists are the ones supported by facts and the Dreamers are the ones selling how Big Club fixes everything, except it rarely does unless you weren’t already the Second Coming. It works for Pulisic and not much else. Everyone else signed Big Club is off on loan or transferred someplace else, or content with appearance crumbs.

        The one place I think the ambition is best justified is like U20 where the first team probably keeps you in their in house system and trains you up, and you can be molded. And if it doesn’t work out you have a decade to adjust. But to me Wood is ignoring his own lesson (as well as Green’s), and he’s risking his position at a transitional juncture in the team.

      • There are several differences between Green and Wood, the first being Wood has actually played first-team minutes in the Bundesliga. The second would be that Hannover is not Bayern, they aren’t likely to bring in four top-tier internationals every year to fill in gaps. Hannover has been in the Bundesliga since 2002 minus the 16/17 seasons so they are also pretty stable. Hannover played last season with two strikers, one returner had 15 goals last season, the other had five, the third returner managed one goal in Belgium last year on loan. There are minutes to be had, Hamburg’s other two main strikers scored 3 goals and 2 goals, so Wood was not the only striker at Hamburg who struggled.

    • This is not a game for timid people to play in mediocre leagues. Bobby Wood wants to play in the World Cup in 4 years and he is trying to position himself as well as he can to get that opportunity. You seem to be the only one who doesn’t understand that playing in the second division isn’t good enough when going up again today the Kane’s, Neymar’s Lukaku’s, and M’Bappe’s of the world.

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      • I think Hannover sees Bobby for what he is- a striker with some proven talent who is stuck on a poor team that provides him little service. He’s not a creator. He is, however, an extremely hard worker and opportunistic striker.

        From the article: ““Bobby Wood has exactly the striker profile we’ve defined: a highly talented player who has already proven his potential and is a great fit for us because of his extremely team-friendly playing style and his great willingness to run,” ”

        I’m guessing this was a relatively simple exercise for Hannover’s in-house analytics staff.

      • Well, I could argue just as easily that with an up and coming new crop of young forwards, him having lulled at the end of the last qualifying, and a new coach coming in, he better get playing time and goals in his ambitious destination or he risks being punished for it.

        I also think your type forgets how last cycle Jozy went to Sunderland, Green went to Bayern, a few like that that didn’t work out. You kind of assume that it in fact must benefit the team when it last time left us with out of favor strikers and looking around for Dempsey. You know, the one who “gave up and came home.”

      • This is not a Hate Bobby Wood thing. I am a fan. It’s just my sense that people in their mid 20s find their level in sports. I think his level was Union Berlin. You can blame his teammates but that’s where he produced. Hamburg was moving back down to his level. He is going to up the ante instead. I am open to him succeeding but concerned that after like 12 goals in a couple seasons with Hamburg this sort of Name Brand move risks more of the same.

    • Green went to Bayern when he was 15 not after the WC and again Bayern and Hannover are on a completely different level. After the 2014 WC Bayern brought in Lewandowski, the next year the brought Douglas Costa, Coman, and Vidal, the next year Renato Sanches. Hannover’s other FW signing is Asano who scored once last year for Stuttgart.

      I think your Sunderland reference might be applicable, but in a different direction. Hamburg and Sunderland are similar in that they hung on to top flight football for several years playing generally aging players in a negative fashion. When they went down, the club wasn’t even in position to fight it out to get back up. Just as Sunderland crashed down to League One, Hamburg shows no ability to even be competitive at 2.Bundesliga level.

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      • Hamburg was a Bundesliga staple that had never been relegated. Hardly like Sunderland. I like Bobby but he scored 5 goals 1 season then 2 goals another. He has not proven he is that level. That being said, I congratulate anyone who can push themselves.

      • Yes historically Hamburg has been better than Sunderland, but they’ve been hanging on for a number of years, last five seasons 17th place, 14th place, 10th place, 16th place, 16th place. Bobby was Hamburg’s leading goal scorer in 2017 and their leading scorer last season had 6 so the club had many more issues than Bobby. But hey they just beat a fifth division side 10-0 in a friendly so maybe they are turning it around.

    • I’m sure everyone is dying to hear my opinion. As I wrote the other day, perhaps he should look to the Dutch first division. I still think that would be a good move for him. If he could score consistently in the double digits in Holland, there’s nothing wrong with that and he could be a valuable contributor to the US. Bolh Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore had successful and productive seasons in the Eredivise. As I pointed out before, Mexico’s hirving Lozano spent last season there with PSV where he had 17 goals and that didn’t seem to hurt him in any way. However, there’s nothing wrong with this move. It’s up to Wood tgo take advantage of the situation, practice and play well enough that the coach has to play him regularly, and then take advantage of his opportunities. One thing I agree with johnnyrazor is that I think Hanover and Sunderland were comparable. Both bad teams that left their forwards starved for service. Just as Jozy shouldn’t be harshly judged on his time in Sunderland, neither should Wood for his time in Hamburg. Like Jozy, I think Wood would flourish in Holland. Since that isn’t likely to happen, best of luck to him at Hannover.

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