SC Freiburg vs. Gladbach preview: Can the Breisgau club avoid three straight losses?
Gladbach travel to the Black Forest on Matchday 10, as both clubs look to climb their way up the table and challenge for the European places.
SC Freiburg
Freiburg were surprisingly handily beaten at home by Paderborn on Wednesday evening to drop out of the DFB-Pokal. Still, morale remains fairly high in the Black Forest even though Christian Streich continues to tinker with his lineup.
The trainer has preferred a back three as of late with Manuel Gulde and Kiliann Sildillia sharing playing time. Youngster Noah Weißhaupt is seeing an increased role in captain Christian Günter’s absence, while all of Freiburg’s no. 9 options are fighting for a starting spot.
With injuries piling up, Freiburg just need to find a way to get through this next week after having to play seven games in three weeks.
Following their midweek defeat, Streich said, "We had two extraordinary years in the cup, something like that had never happened before at SC. Now we're out. - We tried everything against a good Paderborn team. We now have to combine all our strengths against Mönchengladbach.”
Team News
Günter, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Roland Sallai, and Maximilian Philipp are expected to be sidelined. Yannik Keitel is questionable.
Gladbach
With two consecutive wins over Heidenheim, the mood seems to be improving in the Gladbach camp. However, they sit 11th in the table and it feels unlikely that they have enough quality to secure a European spot this year.
To the surprise of some supporters, Jordan Siebatcheu looks to be the preferred choice up front over Tomas Cvancara right now. Gerardo Seoane even said, “Cvancara is also lacking a bit of rhythm from training because of various injuries in the last few weeks. Jordan got his chance and took it.”
Gladbach have a difficult schedule over the next month with four straight games against clubs in the top half of the table.
Seoane added, "We're expecting a team who work together and are well-drilled. - Freiburg are a challenge for any team, whether at home or away. Of course they're strong at home, as they're very connected with the supporters."
Team News
Jonas Omlin, Stefan Lainer, Ko Itakura, and Hannes Wolf are not available. Manu Kone will serve the last game of his red-card suspension.