Gladbach vs. Bochum preview: Do Die Fohlen have anything to play for?
It’s fair to question if the many departing Gladbach players will give their maximum effort on Saturday, while hungry Bochum are desperate for a result to avoid the drop.
| Jonas Hofmann. | Photo: Sven Mandel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Gladbach
Gladbach are in no man’s land at 10th in the table sitting on 36 points. It's a lost season for the club, but maybe they can provide their fans with a bit of hope over these last few games heading into next season.
The Foals are coming off a disappointing draw to Stuttgart and are still without their injured star, Marcus Thuram. It’s to be seen whether Joe Scally can re-earn his starting spot back from Stefan Lainer on the right, but at least Ramy Bensebaini will be available once again.
In a press conference, Sporting Director Roland Virkus commented, "Football is an emotional sport, and I can understand every fan that's angry and disappointed. - We now need to focus on taking the maximum possible from our remaining fixtures, in order to end the season with a better feeling so that we can work on rebuilding over the summer."
Team News
Jonas Omlin is expected to be recovered from an illness in time for Saturday, but Thuram isn’t available. Bensebaini and Jonas Hofmann are expected to play, while Ko Itakura is suspended.
It was announced this week that Gladbach have signed defender Lukas Ullrich, another youngster from Hertha BSC, who will join on a free this summer.
Bochum
It will be interesting to see what Bochum team shows up at Gladbach on Saturday, as this is a side that have been far better at home. They need at least a point this weekend to have any chance of escaping the bottom three after Matchday 31 ends.
They impressively (yet controversially) drew to Dortmund last weekend and now must take advantage of a pretty favorable three-game stretch. Following Gladbach, Bochum play Augsburg and last-place Hertha, before finishing the season against Leverkusen.
Trainer Thomas Letsch stated, “Gladbach are one of the very few teams in the league that don’t have much at stake in the table. Whether that's an advantage for us, I don't know. Maybe they'll be free to play freely. That's all speculation on my part.”
Team News
Philipp Forster, Marko Johansson, Keven Schlotterbeck and Paul Grave are out with injuries.