VDV wants a happy Hamburg

The Dutchman made his debut in a 3-2 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt - its third straight loss this season - and after playing his first 90 minutes with the Bundesliga struggler, he was able to put his finger on why it is where it is in the league.

"When you start a game like we did, then you can never win," he said.

"We were far too fearful to begin with.

"Complaining about it now gets us nowhere, we have got to work hard and intensively on ourselves."

Nevertheless, Van Der Vaart did see signs of improvements in the second half, during which Hamburg held its own with only 10 men and came close to getting an equaliser.

"We fought our way back and that is positive," added the former Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder.

"We have just got to put the big chances we created away."

Goalkeeper Rene Adler was also encouraged by Hamburg's performance after Petr Jiracek's red card, saying: "We were the better team in the second half and that is something we can build upon.

"We are denying ourselves victories by not taking our chances," he added on his club's website.