Wolfsburg vs. SC Freiburg preview: Kovac desperately needs a result
With Wolfsburg’s disastrous form, trainer Niko Kovac has come under intense scrutiny and must get a result against Freiburg on Saturday or else he could be out of a job.
| Niko Kovac. | Photo: Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg have only won two (both against Leipzig) of their last nine fixtures and are steadily dropping down the Bundesliga table. Niko Kovac seems to be running out of ideas and the club are now out of the Pokal following a brutal extra-time loss to Gladbach.
The company club can reminisce back to their last match against Freiburg at the Volkswagen Arena in which they destroyed the Breisgau club 6-0. They’ll be depending on Jonas Wind to create some magic up front on Saturday, as their offense has gone cold with only three goals in the last four competitive games.
Following their Pokal defeat, Kovac commented, "Football is a beautiful and at the same time a cruel sport. - The team has the quality to make the next games successful.”
Team News
Lukas Nmecha, Patrick Wimmer, Maximilian Arnold, Amin Sarr, and Sebastiaan Bornauw are all expected to remain out.
SC Freiburg
The club from the Black Forest are having a decent season at 8th in the table. They were coming off an important 1-0 away win to Mainz last week and are only worried about the Europa League following an early Pokal exit.
After struggling for so long, striker Michael Gregoritsch is back in form with four goals in his last two games. It will be interesting to see whether Christian Streich continues with youngster Jordy Makengo at left-back, as the defense looks to keep their third consecutive clean sheet.
In his presser, Streich said, "I want to see everything on the pitch. We can't always expect everything in terms of football. But, everyone has to empty themselves completely to the point of exhaustion. That's the Bundesliga."
Team News
Lukas Kübler and Matthias Ginter were involved in team training this week and will be options. But, a lengthy injury list still includes Christian Günter, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Maximilian Philipp, Kenneth Schmidt, and Yannik Keitel.