I just wanted to leave this here, as I suspect it may not get any better than this!

Eight games into Hamburger's debut season in Division Two, and der Dino sit second in the table, equal on points with leaders Internacional, and one of only two unbeaten teams.

Remarkably, it was the Red Shorts' first home win of the season two nights ago against Borussia Monchengladbach that lifted them to such lofty heights.

Typically, D2 remains as tight as ever, with a good or poor run of form likely to send a team hurtling up or down the table in dramatic fashion.

In the Beginning...

For Hamburg, and manager Marsden, it's all a far cry from the boss's first season in charge, Season 2, when the club were rock bottom of D3 with one point from the first seven games.

Newly promoted from D4 after a superb inaugural Top 100 season under former boss Jim Kennedy, der Dino never looked like adapting to the higher level in those opening fixtures.

Relying on the players who got them up, some of whom had arguably over-achieved and were already in terminal decline, proved to be a disaster.

Things had to change, and change they did. The refreshed team went on a cracking run, at one point getting 28 points from 14 games, midway through the season.

The team also got to the final of the Top 100 Shield, which was an amazing achievement (even more so in hindsight), beating Juventus, Bayern and Chelsea along the way.

The Fall... and the Resurrection!

But that was where it all started to go wrong. After the Shield semi-final win, we lost four league fixtures on the bounce, before losing the final to Stuttgart on penalties.

Although we won our next three league games, and looked like we would secure our D3 place, we lost our last four games of the season, to go down.

From there, we won promotion back to D3 at the first attempt, then tried to buy ratings to get promotion to D2. That strategy failed, so we went down the youth route favoured by so many.

While the club saw steady progress - evolution - with improved league positions all seasons but one, culminating in a fourth placed finish and playoff defeat in Season 8 (finishing behind Scallotti's Liege and Guri's Anderlecht, both now in D1, and Verona).

That disappointment, and the frustration of several seasons' slow progress resulting in ultimate failure, prompted a renewed 'promotion or bust' strategy for Season 9.

We sacrificed a lot - youth and depth - to bring in some more experienced, higher rated players, but it did the trick, and now we're second in D2 with more or less the same team.

Ascension to D1?

Well, I don't think our current position is sustainable. Our strength in depth is very limited, and while I hope that will improve with ratings rises for several younger players, that will not be soon enough for this season.

The other side of that coin is that some of our older, higher rated players our on the decline, and will lose their ratings.

As ever in Top 100, it's a tough challenge, and a delicate balancing act between success now, and success in the future.

Last season I successfully tried out what was for me a completely new formation and tactics, not just in Top 100, but in Soccer Manager generally.

Years ago, like almost everyone else it seemed, I played 3-5-2, and later 5-4-1 A when they seemed to be the formations that guaranteed results. (Those were the days when you could play attacking wide players at wingback!)

More recently, of course, 4-2-3-1 B appears to be the default formation to choose if you want to have any chance of winning. That said, I've had some success playing 4-3-3 B, and I've seen other managers win using variants of any or all of these formations.

Hamburger missed out on automatic promotion, and lost in the playoffs at the end of Season 8, our fifth straight season in Division 3. While we'd seen slow and steady improvement (bar one season), I felt it was time to really go for it in Season 9, as I couldn't bear the thought of failing again.

To that end, I decided to prioritise current player ratings over future, and brought in a number of players who were mostly older and better, expecting that their higher ratings would effectively guarantee me promotion.

In came Vazquez (91), Teixeira (90), Felipe (89) and Schmelzer (89). Out went Mai (75), Ramselaar (87), Soyuncu (88), Ascacibar (89) and Promes (89). The younger and more versatile Moses (90) came in for Coleman (90), while Kagawa (90 - his short Hamburger career never really got going) made way for the more defensive minded Schneiderlin (89).

We started the season playing safe with 4-2-3-1 B in the belief that we would win the majority of games simply because we were better than most of our opponents. It didn't work out that way, of course, and after five games and one win, it was already clear we were not going to be anywhere near the top three.

It was around this time that Malcolm published his much cherished statistical predictions for the season, and impressed upon me where Hamburger's strength lay. Attack. I needed to find a formation and tactics that suited our attacking players.

Another problem I faced was my ageing centre-forward, Aritz Aduriz. He'd had a fantastic season, scoring 17 goals in 35 games since signing from Hellas Verona, but that was in a 4-3-3 B. In a 4-2-3-1 B he was left isolated and the goals dried up. So I really wanted a formation that had three forwards.

Lastly, I had left myself with only two central midfielders, so I couldn't play 4-3-3. That left just 5-2-3, which is a defensive formation, and 3-4-3, which no one plays these days, not since the mad, bad Louis van Gaal with Ajax in the 1980s....

Now, it may not surprise anyone reading this to know that I'm no expert on football matters. As a boy, I could recite every first eleven from all ninety-two football league clubs, and I loved playing, of course.

Later I loved play-by-mail football manager, and wasted many a morning taking Bolton Wanderers from fourth division obscurity to European glory in five seasons over and over again on an early UNIX computer demo version of Championship Manager instead of assisting research into the incidence and prevalence of vertebral osteoporosis in Europe (afternoons were generally spent in a paranoid haze coming down - or to - from lunchtime excesses).

Where was I? Oh, yes. Football. Expert. Not.

Although I was the captain of the school team, I once had to substitute myself to avoid being beaten up by the hard kids. During another game, I had to fill in at left-back while the lad who was supposed to be playing there had a fag with our right winger.

I have a Level One FA Coaching badge (expired), two flat feet, and one remaining bunion. The best individual performances I've seen live are a young Roy Keane for Forest at Burnden Park, and a young John Oster for Grimsby Town. Both were clearly on a different level to the twenty one other players on the pitch.

Nowadays, the only football I watch is Manchester United games, and international tournaments. My 'scouting' is reserved to Transfermarkt, Google, and YouTube.

So, 3-4-3. I would need to do some research.

Fortunately for me, the first result that came up on Google was Strengths and Weaknesses 3-4-3 Formation, and this instantly became my tactical bible for Season 9.

With a couple of tweaks, this became my standard formation, with a direct, attacking style of play down both flanks, and a fast, high pressing game, one defensive midfielder (Schneiderlin), one more attacking playmaker (Bradley), and a target man (Aduriz).

What I found was that 3-4-3 set up with these attacking tactics generally overpowered weaker teams easily. We rarely dominated possession, but we dominated the all-important stat, goals scored.

Against stronger teams, I found it didn't work so well, or I was less confident about using it. In games against my closest rivals (Monaco, Espanyol, PSV and Basel), I tended to play 5-2-3 defensive, hoping for (and usually getting) at least a draw.

By season's end, we missed out on the title by a couple of points and finished third. If only I'd played 3-4-3 in those first five games, we would have won the title easily, I'm sure.

This season, in a much stronger Division Two, I doubt I will play 3-4-3 very often. I tried it tonight in our friendly with a poor Zenit side, and we came out comfortable 4-1 victors, as expected. We even dominated the play.

I think I will need to find another more defensive minded formation and tactics for most of this season against superior opposition, if Hamburger are to have any chance of achieving my Chairman's stated ambition to avoid relegation.

After failing in ambitious bids to land winger Serge Gnabry and left back Ferland Mendy this week, Hamburger manager Marsden has swooped for long-time target, veteran utility wide player Ashley Young.

Departing for Southampton in return will be Marcos Rojo, who has been a rock in der Dino's promotion-winning back line this season, until succumbing to injury.

Also joining as part of the Rojo deal is young left-back Adam Masina.

The club is delighted to bring in a versatile and experienced leader like Ashley Young. He will give us more options in Division Two next season, in full-back and wing positions.

Adam Masina is a player I like, and he will provide much-needed cover and competition for Marcel Schmelzer on the left.

We're sorry to see Marcos go after such a great season, but we wish him every success at Southampton, and thank his new manager Niall Taylor for the quick and easy negotiations.

Manager Marsden on his new acquisitions