Mainz vs. Wolfsburg preview: The 05ers desperately need a win
Embattled Niko Kovac’s Wolfsburg travel to face struggling Mainz, who are looking to former second-team coach Jan Siewert in order to turn this ship around.
Mainz
Mainz’s sole win of the season came against Leipzig in early November, but a league-high 7 draws has allowed for a bit of hope. Jan Siewert was named the permanent coach at the beginning of the break and now he’s been given a full three weeks to make the appropriate tweaks to his squad.
The 05ers have only scored 13 goals this campaign and really need Ludovic Ajorque to return to form. They’ll be looking to get newly-extended Jonathan Burkardt off and running on Saturday, as he’s yet to put one in the back of the net this season.
Siewert recently mentioned that, “After the training camp, we're feeling positive for the start of the second half of the season. We want to keep the momentum going from the last friendly."
Team News
Jae-sung Lee can’t play, as he’s at the Asian Cup. Nelson Weiper and Stefan Bell are out, while Joshua Guilavogui is questionable.
Wolfsburg
Niko Kovac came under fire at the end of the calendar year due to poor results and the Wolfsburg brass won’t give him too many more opportunities if the losses persist. The squad is extremely talented, but they need more production up front with only 20 goals put away through 16 games.
The 10th-place side have a really gettable start to 2024 against mostly lower-table teams and they must take advantage. Jonas Wind will of course be a focal point offensively on Matchday 17, while there’s hope that Rogerio is fit enough to return to the starting lineup.
In his presser, Kovac stated, “The impression I get from daily training is that the mood is great and the intensity and quality of the training sessions are very good. I'm optimistic about the second half of the season.”
Team News
Kevin Paredes, Ridle Baku and Rogerio are all questionable for Saturday. Lukas Nmecha and Patrick Wimmer are expected to remain out. Maxence Lacroix is suspended.