Gladbach vs. Mainz 05 preview: Visitors still searching for first win
Mainz 05 will attempt to end their wait for a first league win of the season when they face Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday.
Gladbach
After picking up two points from their opening five league games, Gladbach would have been relieved to claim their first win of the Bundesliga season against Bochum last weekend. Florian Neuhaus opened the scoring for Gladbach, before Alassane Pléa netted a brace to give his side a commanding three-goal lead at the break. Although Bochum pulled a goal back in the 68th minute, Gladbach held firm to claim their first league win of Gerardo Seoane’s tenure.
Die Fohlen are now sitting in 13th place, and they will be looking to improve upon that position on Friday. If Gladbach are to move up the table then they will need to claim their first home point of the season. While they have lost all three of their home matches, Seoane may be the first person to point out that those defeats all took place against difficult opposition in Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig.
Team News
Jonas Omlin is ruled out with a shoulder injury, while there are doubts surrounding the availability of Tony Jantschke and Christoph Kramer.
Mainz 05
Mainz have experienced a disastrous start to the 2023-24 season after collecting just one point from their six league matches. Since playing out a 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt on matchday two, Bo Svensson’s side have gone on to lose four consecutive games against Werder Bremen, Stuttgart, Augsburg and Bayer Leverkusen.
As one of three teams yet to win a league game this season, die Nullfünfer are currently propping up the Bundesliga table. They are also winless in 11 league matches (D2, L9) since beating Bayern Munich 3-1 in April, and their poor form has led to questions about Svensson’s position.
With Mainz desperate to claim all three points, Gladbach could prove to be the perfect opponent after avoiding defeat in their last five head-to-head meetings (W3, D2). They also completed a league double over die Fohlen last season, winning 1-0 in September’s away meeting, before cruising to a 4-0 home win in April.
Team News
The visitors are unable to call upon Karim Onisiwo, Phillipp Mwene, Maxim Leitsch, Andreas Hanche-Olsen, Jonathan Burkardt and Nelson Weiper.