Bundesliga strugglers Hamburg have signed experienced coach Mirko Slomka until 2016 as they seek to avoid what would be their first-ever relegation from German top-flight football.
Slomka has penned a two-year contract and the 46-year-old will be Hamburg's third coach this season, having already parted company with Thorsten Fink in September and Dutchman Bert van Marwijk at the weekend.
Ex-Netherlands coach Van Marwijk, 61, was sacked on Saturday night after Hamburg were drubbed 4-2 at bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig, their seventh consecutive league defeat seeing them set an unwelcome club record.
Slomka now steps in after spells at Bundesliga sides Schalke 04 and Hanover 96, who sacked him in December after a string of away defeats.
Hamburg have never previously been relegated from the Bundesliga and Slomka faces an unenviable task to inspire a squad low on morale.
"It's going to be about sorting out the tactical and technical abilities of the team. That's what we're going to have to work on in the next few days," said Slomka in his first press conference.
"We'll do everything we can to tug the club free of the situation it is in.
"Hamburg is a big club and one with a vision.
"I'm looking forward to the challenge, but it won't be easy, that's why I am the coach."
Slomka said he had given little thought to the second division, in the event that his rescue mission does not succeed.
"I'm not dealing with the issue of the second division, but it would be naive not to give it any thought," he said.
"I am just assuming we will stay in the league."
The 46-year-old Slomka helped Schalke to second place in 2007. He took over at Hanover 96 in 2010, steering the Lower Saxony side to the Europa League in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
After Hamburg were also drubbed 5-0 at home by title-holders Bayern Munich last Wednesday in the German Cup, Slomka's job is to end a run of eight straight defeats.
