Our next opponents: VfB look for new start

POSITION

VfB Stuttgart have only picked up one point from the last six Bundesliga matches. The team next to bottom in the table are now four points behind the play-off spot. The situation at Stuttgart is therefore tense. The club is in the middle of a relegation battle just two years after promotion to the top-flight and an impressive ninth-place finish last season. Following five games without scoring, the Swabians netted twice in last weekend's 3-2 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt. The short training camp held in Marbella during the two-week January break in the Bundesliga did not lead to the hoped-for change in fortune. Thomas Hitzlsperger certainly has not been able to identify a "spirit of Marbella." On the contrary, the VfB CEO, who will give up his post in the autumn of this year, did not mince his words after the third defeat in succession in the second half of the season: "We’ll have massive problems if we carry on like this. It's not good enough." However, Hitzlsperger sees "a good chance of moving up the table" in the remaining 13 matches. But that does rely on: “The players have to understand they need put in more effort and not wait for somebody to motivate them."

PERSONneL

VfB head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo almost had his full squad to choose from for the first time since the start of the season against Eintracht Frankfurt. But last season’s prolific strikers Sasa Kalajdzic and Silas were not back to peak performance levels after months out injured. Kalajdzic missed almost all of the first half of the season with a shoulder injury and he scored for the first time this term against Eintracht. The Austrian did receive a knock in that match and also in training at the beginning of the week and he will miss the match at Leverkusen due to bruising. The DR Congo international Silas only made his comeback for VfB at the end of last year following a torn cruciate and he has not found the back of the net since then. Silas and Kalajdzic scored 27 goals between them in 2020/21 – almost half of Stuttgart's total that season (56). The club strengthened the squad in the winter transfer window with the signing from Champions League club Sporting Lisbon: The 19-year-old Tiago Tomas made a brief debut for the Swabians against Frankfurt with his pace and mobility designed to invigorate the VfB attack. It remains to be seen where Matarazzo will play the on-loan Portuguese forward. But Omar Marmoush, with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations for four weeks including the defeat in the final against Senegal, is again available for selection. "He's motivated and ready to go," said his coach Pellegrino Matarazzo. In addition to Kalajdzic, the injured Mo Sankoh and Nikolas Nartey plus Waldemar Anton, who tested positive for Covid-19 this week, are also sidelined.

Performers

In addition to the great potential, which the VfB attack has with everybody fit, the Stuttgart midfield is also very strong. The captain Wataru Endo, one of the most impressive holding midfielders in the league last season, is the only player to have featured in all 21 Bundesliga fixtures this term. However indispensable the Japan international is to Matarazzo, he also has been unable to build on his performances of last season. Orel Mangala, his slightly more attacking partner in midfield, is not yet back to his best after being out injured for six months last year. These two are important as ball winners and creative players who are able to bring the talented strike force into the game. It is good that the attack can at least rely on their defenders. Mavropanos is the top scorer for VfB this season with four goals, Waldemar Anton scored against Frankfurt to end the longest run without a goal in the history of VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga (518 minutes). It was the ninth goal by a Stuttgart defender in the current campaign – the highest number in the league.

PROBLEMs

The downward spiral of recent weeks has left its mark on the team. "You could feel the insecurity after one or two poor actions at the beginning of the game," said VfB sporting director Sven Mislintat after the 3-2 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt. And the problems with opposition set-pieces were again evident against Eintracht. "You can see the position in the table has done something to the team." So, according to Mislintat, it is all about "clearing the insecurity from the team and the players' minds." And VfB president and supervisory board boss Claus Vogt believes, "the players are aware of the situation. They are afraid of making mistakes and unfortunately they are then subject to mistakes." Thomas Hitzlsperger therefore demands from the whole team greater responsibility and the ability of the players to put up a fight. "We have to be in a position to overcome obstacles to move up from seventeenth place and we have to take more risks again."

PRediction

There is no doubt VfB Stuttgart are in a mess. The team has to get back to winning ways as soon as possible if the club wants to avoid the third demotion since 2016. The four-point gap to the play-off spot with 13 matches to go is not the end of the world and entirely achievable. Particularly as the Swabians are now almost back to full strength. If key players like Kalajdzic, Silas, Endo and Mangala can soon rediscover their top form, the talented new signing Tiago Thomas can quickly fit in and the whole team can get over their mental block, then they will be capable of staying up.