'Up to us to get a result at Stuttgart'

Although the newcomers are in 13th position on 17 points in the Bundesliga ahead of matchday 15, a closer look at the season to date for the Swabian club reveals: The team coached by Hannes Wolf have picked up all but one of their points at home at the Mercedes Benz Arena. VfB have only conceded two of 17 goals on their own turf. "Stuttgart are very good at pressing at their own ground and are great at switching from defence to attack," said Heiko Herrlich. "Up to  now, only FC Augsburg have managed to take a point there with a 0-0 draw. Otherwise, Stuttgart have won all their home games so far this season."

 solid defence as foundation

In the last two away games,  VfB have only secured one draw (1-1 at Hannover 96 plus a 1-0 defeat at Werder Bremen). speaking at the pre-match press conference on Thursday morning at the Media Centre at the BayArena, Herrlich declared: "They won their last home game against Borussia Dortmund and we didn't manage to do that here." The target for his team on Friday night is clear: "Of course, we want to win. We  are aware that we've dropped too many points this season. We need to keep on picking up points to secure our place at the top end of the table. So it's up to us to get a result at Stuttgart."

As in the 1-1 draw against Dortmund on Saturday, Bayer 04 are looking to focus on having a solid defence. "We did well in open play in the last game and created chances up front. That's based on working against the ball and the desire to make yourself available. We want to keep that up," said Herrlich who has high expectations of his team: "We just have to be more effective in converting our chances than we were in the first half against Dortmund."

three missing for Stuttgart game

The 45-year-old goes into the third-last away game of the year without two injured players Charles Aránguiz (muscular problem) and Vlad Yurchenko (foot) plus the suspended Wendell. Herrlich was unwilling to divulge how he will replace the full-back: "We have lots of options. Which player we use depends on whether or not we play with a back four." 

The Werkself squad will head south after the final pre-match training session on Thursday afternoon. 670 Werkself supporters are expected to be at the Stuttgart ground on Friday night.