“Courageous and direct”

On Friday evening (kick-off 20:30 CET), VfB Stuttgart visit a Borussia Mönchengladbach side who have been strong at home of late. The Foals have won four of their six league games in front of their own fans this season and have collected 12 of their 16 Bundesliga points on home soil. “An evening game at Borussia Mönchengladbach is a challenge for any team,” said VfB coach Michael Wimmer. “We’re looking forward to it. Gladbach are a team with a lot of individual quality. They have a lot of possession and are capable of producing dominant performances.”

Simplicity will be the key to VfB’s hopes of success, according to the Stuttgart boss. “It’s important that every player recognises his role – both offensively and defensively,” Wimmer said. “We want to be compact and play with intensity, as well as being courageous and direct. That courage and determination allowed us to create a few goalscoring opportunities in the closing stages against Augsburg.” Set pieces “were also key to our strong finish”, he added.

Göz Atın

“We want to steer the game in the right direction”

“It’s better to compete against the best”

Narrow defeat in Bremen

As for personnel, Dan-Axel Zagadou (flu), Enzo Millot and Tanguy Coulibaly (both muscular problems) are sidelined, but Konstantinos Mavropanos (muscle issue) and Josha Vagnoman (bone edema) are available again.