Stuttgart vs. RB Leipzig preview: A big top four clash
Both Stuttgart and Leipzig are still looking for their first competitive victories of 2024 in a major Saturday afternoon battle at the MHPArena.
Stuttgart
Stuttgart have started the new year with two disappointing losses to Gladbach and Bochum, yet they’ve somehow held onto third place. They are badly missing several starters away on international duty and are struggling to find goals.
Jamie Leweling will likely start again on the wing this weekend, but he still hasn’t scored a goal this season and strike-partner Deniz Undav has slightly fallen out of form. If Stuttgart want any chance of keeping up with fast-paced Leipzig, someone from the front three has to step up in Serhou Guirassy’s absence.
Sebastian Hoeneß mentioned, “RB Leipzig are an absolutely top-class side, as we learned in the reverse fixture. Nevertheless, we believe we’re capable of causing them problems at home. We’re really up for it. We two need halves at the same level. If we manage that we can get something, but we know it’s going to be tough.”
Team News
Nikolas Nartey and Lilian Egloff are out, while Atakan Karazor is suspended. Hoeneß hinted that Enzo Millot could be pushed back into a holding midfield role this weekend. Guirassy, Silas, Wooyeong Jeong and Hiroki Ito are on international duty.
RB Leipzig
Leipzig narrowly suffered losses to Frankfurt and world-class Leverkusen to start the season, but still sit in 4th place. Luckily, they haven’t lost in their previous six matches against Stuttgart, including a 5-1 romp back on Matchday 2.
The loss of Xavi Simons to suspension hurts, but Dani Olmo is back to full fitness and Marco Rose has a plethora of options to choose from in attack. Looking past Matchday 19, opportunities are in abundance, as the Red Bull club play seven of their next eight league games against teams currently in the lower half of the table.
This week, Kevin Kampl commented, "Obviously, we didn’t want to start the second half of the season this way. Both losses annoyed us. Now, we have to turn this anger into something positive. We’re playing the side directly above us in the table on Saturday and can leapfrog them if we win. That’s what we need to focus on.”
Team News
Captain Willi Orban returned to team training, but he’s still questionable for the weekend. Yussuf Poulsen and Lukas Klostermann didn’t complete parts of training this week, but both are expected to be squad options. Simons is suspended and Amadou Haidara is on international duty.
Either Christoph Baumgartner or Eljif Elmas will replace Simons in the starting lineup.