Borussia Monchengladbach will hope to buildup on their great form with another win in the Bundesliga when they host Bayern Munich at the Borussia Park on Saturday.
We head onto the business end of the first half of the 2019-20 season with Bundesliga heating up for a photo finish title race, as Borussia Monchengladbach host Bayern Munich in a bid to continue their winning form.
Marco Rose’s men will look to continue from where they left against Freiburg in their 4-2 win. Die Fohlen have kept their winning form intact thus far and despite the stumbles in between the manager has not allowed the morale of the team to go down.
Bayern, on the other hand, are coming to this game with contrasting fortunes as they lost against Bayer Leverkusen at home, in a match where the forwards had a really off-day at the office. The Bavarians are currently fourth in the Bundesliga table. Hansi Flick and his men will be desperate to get back to winnings ways and close the gap on the table toppers.
Therefore ahead of this highly anticipated Bundesliga clash, we at The Hard Tackle analyse the teams and take a closer look at how they gear up for this match.
Team News
Borussia Monchengladbach
Marco Rose has a bunch of young players who are in great form and on their day they can take any side in Europe head-on. While we speak about the squad, the Austrian will be missing players like Andreas Poulsen, Florian Mayer and Torben Musel, who are still nursing from their respective injuries. Matthias Ginter is expected to return after missing the match against Freiburg due to a muscular problem.
Coming to the formation, Rose likes to fluctuate within 4-2-3-1 and a conventional 4-3-3 formation. Yan Sommer is their mainstay between the sticks while Stefan Lainer and Ramy Bensebaini are ought to start as full-backs. Ginter is expected to replace Tony Jantschke in defence with Nico Elvedi completing the four-man backline.
In midfield, Florian Neuhaus and Denis Zakaria will play as the double pivot allowing the likes of László Bénes to play with more freedom and combine with players like Marcus Thuram and Breel Embolo upfront. Thuram is a prime contender to start on the left flank and Patrick Herrmann is likely to take up the right channel.
Swiss forward, Breel Embolo is likely to lead the lines for the Foals and he is in red hot form after scoring a brace against Freiburg in their last game. Rose will have ample options to chose from the bench with players like Christoph Kramer, Alassane Plea and Raffael.
Probable Lineup (4-2-3-1): Sommer; Lainer, Elvedi, Ginter, Bensebaini; Neuhaus, Zakaria; Herrmann, Benes, Thuram; Embolo
Bayern Munich
Hansi Flick will be desperate to get back to winning ways after the defeat against Leverkusen and also he will be relieved that there isn’t any new injury concern for Bayern. The same long term absentees like Jann Fiete Arp, Lucas Hernandez and Niklas Sule are out for the champions.
Bayern played in a 4-1-4-1 formation in their last match and Flick may opt for the same in this match as well as the Bavarians need intent in their play against the table-toppers away from home. Manuel Neuer, as usual, will start in goal and will look to marshal the defenders from the back. Alphonso Davies is likely to keep his place at left-back with Benjamin Pavard making the right-back position his own lately.
Javi Martinez will look to add composure to the backline with David Alaba again finding him in the uncharacteristic centre-back position. Flick has preferred the Austrian over Jerome Boateng and Alaba hasn’t done much wrong playing centrally. In midfield, Joshua Kimmich will be used as the sole defensive screen just ahead of the backline while Leon Goretzka looks like the only player among the four to track back and help out Kimmich.
Serge Gnabry and Thomas Muller are expected to keep their places. The former wasn’t in great shape against Leverkusen, while the latter scored the only goal of the game. Kingsley Coman is expected to start on the left flank in place of Ivan Perisic as Robert Lewandowski continues to lead the line for Bayern.
Probable Lineup (4-1-4-1): Neuer; Pavard, Martinez, Alaba, Davies; Kimmich; Gnabry, Goretzka, Muller, Coman; Lewandowski
Key Stats
- Gladbach are top of the table with 28 points; they were only in a better position after 13 matches in the 1976/77 season when they had 33 points from 10 wins and three draws. That year, they went on to win the title.
- Bayern are in an identical position to where they were one year ago: Fourth position, 24 points, seven wins, three draws and three defeats.
- No other Bundesliga club has earned as many points against Bayern as Gladbach have since 2014 (14 points from 10 games), while their total of 20 home wins against Bayern is a league-best against the record champions.
- Gladbach have won their last five Bundesliga home games, scoring 18 goals (an average of 3.6 per game). Marco Rose’s side has netted at least twice in all five of these games.
Player to Watch
Marcus Thuram
The 22-year old forward from France has set the Bundesliga on fire with his prolific goalscoring knack. Coming from a superstar descent, Marcus Thuram has started taking long strides on his father’s footsteps. He has been the attacking ace for Marco Rose this season and has scored four goals in the last seven matches in all competitions for the Foals, proving his importance to this Monchengladbach side.
His ability to go past defenders with ease coupled with his strength acts as a huge advantage. Thuram is still in the early days of his career but his last-minute winning goal against AS Roma in the Europa League proves that he has that sense of maturity and composure to be and compete at the top level. Thuram will look to lead the pack and score against Bayern.
Prediction
Borussia Monchengladbach 2-3 Bayern Munich
Monchengladbach have had a great run in the Bundesliga and Marco Rose’s side are overcoming one obstacle at a time with great composure and character. However, they stumbled on a shocking defeat against Union Berlin last month and even Freiburg had them under the radar at one point of time scoring two goals. Therefore Monchengladbach’s defence is still a bit shaky and Bayern, if they can be clinical, can cause a lot of trouble.
The Bavarians may come to this match losing against Leverkusen but that was mostly due to poor finishing from the forwards and also the heroics of Lukas Hradecky and Leon Bailey on either end of the pitch. Overall it promises to be a dramatic clash full of goals. Considering the quality in attack for Bayern, they may just edge past their opponents. The Hard Tackle predicts a high scoring win for the visitors.