There was a change of personnel at the hosts at the start of the season: The club management at Mainz opted to change coaches after the second Bundesliga matchday. Achim Beierlorzer had to go after two defeats in the opening games and assistant coach Jan-Moritz Lichte took over the helm at Mainz 05. The former Werkself assistant coach under Sascha Lewandowski and Sami Hyypiä is looking to get the team back to winning ways – his opposite number Bosz obviously has something to say about that. Mainz have a lot of quality in their squad. It’s down to us to see that it takes another week before that is evident on the pitch,” the Dutchman declared.
In addition to Paulinho, who continues his rehab training following his torn cruciate, Bosz will have to manage without other players following the international break: Summer signing Santiago Arias suffered a broken leg and complex ligament damage to his ankle in a World Cup qualifier with Colombia and is set to be out of action for around six months.
The 56-year-old will also be without the services of Patrik Schick, who is struggling with a muscle injury. With Florian Wirtz, who was substituted in the middle of the first half of the Euro qualifier for the Germany U21s against Bosnia-Herzegovina, there is no evidence of a structural injury to his stomach muscles. The 17-year-old is already on the road to recovery. “But he probably won’t be available for us against Mainz,” said Bosz
In addition, Tin Jedvaj will also most probably have to miss out. The defender was not in the squad for Croatia’s 2-1 defeat against France on Wednesday night due to illness. The results of a coronavirus test proved to be negative and Jedvaj is now feeling better again.
In accordance with the regulations, the players returning from international duty undertook coronavirus tests at the BayArena on Thursday morning. Another round of tests will be performed on Friday morning. If the results are negative then the players can then take part in training and join the Bayer 04 group to travel to Mainz to hopefully play on Saturday and help secure the sixth Bundesliga win in succession against Mainz 05.
Match information:
Broadcasters: Sky and Werks11 Radio (bayer04.de)
Referee: The match officials will be announced on the day the game
Attendance: 250
Video game developer Electronic Arts (EA), in collaboration with the Bundesliga, has announced the six nominees for the Bundesliga Player of the Month award for October 2026 – and Bayer 04’s Ibrahim Maza is among them. Fans of the Black and Reds can vote from now until Sunday 8 November (23:59 CET).
Show more
On Tuesday night, the Leverkusen e-sports team played the first three of their six group stage matches in the second round of the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship. They were unable to secure more than a draw in either of their matches against FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart. The match against Bayern Munich ended in defeat.
Show more
Once again, several Werkself players are set to represent their respective national teams during the final international break of the calendar year. Here is an overview of the Leverkusen players called up for international duty and the match dates. This will be updated regularly.
Show more
The Bundesliga has announced the nominees for the ‘Top Goal of the Month’ award for October. Fans of the Werkself can now vote for, amongst others, Robert Andrich’s stunning volley from the match against Mainz 05 or Moussa Diaby’s curling shot into the top corner from the same fixture. Voting, exclusively on the Bundesliga app, remains open until Sunday, 8 November (23:59 CET).
Show more
