Pre-Season Preview: Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hoffenheim

Blog written by ad_wilkin
Published: 1st August 2024 13:30

It’s another pre-season Bundesliga double header. This time Town take on Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hoffenheim in two games over two days.

Unfortunately, unlike last year when Town carried off the Innsbruck Cup, there’s not a trophy to play for this time but it will no doubt be another couple of good tests as the Blues look to build up their fitness following run outs against Shakhtar Donetsk and Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Mönchengladbach are the team with the bigger reputation but it was actually Hoffenheim who had the better season last year finishing seventh and qualifying for the Europa League. Historically both teams have competed in Europe on and off over the last ten years and like the other friendlies will provide just the sort of opposition that Town will be looking to test themselves against.

<h1>The Managers </h1>

Hoffenheim are managed by American Pelligrino Matarazzo, who following a playing career in the German lower leagues went into coaching and worked his way through the ranks at Nürnberg before being taken to Hoffenheim under Julian Nagelsman.

He left the club to pursue a first-team coaching career at Stuttgart but following his sacking there in 2022 he returned to Hoffenheim to take the manager's role.

Mönchengladbach are managed by Swiss Gerard Seoane. His managerial career began in his home country with spells in charge of Luzern and Young Boys before he crossed the border to take charge of Bayer Leverkusen.

His first season there was a success but the second was a disaster as he only managed five points in his first eight games and was replaced by Xabi Alonso. We all know how well that has gone.

His first season at Mönchengladbach will probably also be considered a disappointment given their recent history and he’ll be hoping to turn things around and improve his 25.64 win percentage this season.

<h1>Goalkeepers </h1>

For Hoffenheim experienced German Oliver Baumann is their number one. Now 34, he played every league game last season to bring his overall Bundesliga appearance total to 461.

He was in the Germany squad for the Euros but has never actually made an appearance for the national side. He is the definition of an experienced keeper and seems likely to see out the rest of his career at Hoffenheim.

He’s not played a part in any friendly so far so it may be his back-up from last season, Luca Phillip, who starts instead with 20-year-old Icelandic keeper Lukas Petersson another option.

It’s a bit more complicated for Mönchengladbach with two keepers vying for the number one spot. Mortiz Nicolas started off in possession of the shirt and played 27 games but was replaced towards the end of the season by Jonas Omlin.

Neither massively impressed statistically with both finishing with a negative goals prevented score. Nicolas with –3.43 and Omlin with –4.65. Both have rotated across pre-season so far.

<h1>Defenders </h1>

Hoffenheim finished last season set up in a 3-4-1-2 formation and the most interesting part of that was Florian Grillitsch operating at the centre of that defensive three.

The Austrian, who played a big part in his country's run to the last 16 at the Euros, has largely operated as a midfielder throughout his career but was successfully converted to a centre-back with his passing range bringing an extra element and allowing Hoffenheim to play into midfield a lot easier.

Playing to the right of him for the majority of last season was former Liverpool and Norwich defender Ozan Kabak. Kabak was drafted in on loan when Liverpool were in the middle of an injury crisis and made 13 appearances in his time at Anfield.

He spent the next season on loan at Norwich but struggled again with both form and injuries. Despite that he’s still only 24 and a full season at Hoffenheim has seen him feature 28 times, score four goals and put in some excellent performances, which would have no doubt seen him go to the Euros had he not picked up a cruciate ligament injury in Turkiye’s first warm-up match, which looks to keep him out until December.

On the other side of Grillitsch was Kevin Akpoguma. The 29-year-old Nigerian has been with Hoffenheim since 2013 and has made 151 appearances. He’s the most defensive of the trio and won 74% of his tackles.

His main area for improvement is aerially. Despite being 6ft 3in tall his aerial duel percentage wasn’t great and his goalscoring record is very poor. George Hirst could find some joy pulling off into that right-hand channel.

These friendlies will be opportunities to bed in new signings and also a chance to look at young talent hoping to break into the first team.

Tim Drexler is one of those. The 19-year-old made eight appearances last season as he stepped in for Apokguma and struggled a bit with his first taste of Bundesliga football. He’s undoubtedly got potential though and has featured for all of Germany’s age groups up to the U19s

The other member of that defensive unit is Stanley Nsoki. The versatile left centre-back or left-back only played 11 games last season as he struggled with injuries. The season before was a similar story with injuries limiting him to 19 games in total.

At the end of the season, Hoffenheim were using Pavel Kaderabek and Marius Butler as wing-backs. Kaderabek is an experienced Czech international with 48 caps but he missed out on the Euros squad this summer. He has 232 Bundesliga appearances and has spent the majority of his career at Hoffenheim and had a very productive season last year with three goals and five assists.

On the other side, Butler is definitely the more attacking of the two having been converted from a striker/left winger to play the more defensive wide left role. Signed from Schalke in the summer following an 11-goal season he only scored once last year but that will largely be down to the different role that he plays.

Both wing-backs have good aerial win numbers which hints at the fact that Hoffenheim will attempt to play a number of cross field balls.

Also in the ranks is Hungarian international Attila Szalai. The Hungarian has 46 caps for his national side and featured at the Euros but struggled for game-time last season, regularly taking up a spot on the bench but only completing 90 minutes on two occasions in the first half of the season.

He spent the second half on loan at SC Freiburg where it was a similar situation as he only made three appearances. For someone who should be in the prime of their career it’s a bit of a strange one and he’ll be hoping to break into the side this season.

Also in the ranks is David Jurasek who joined last January on loan from Benfica. That loan contains an option to buy at the end of the current season. Jurasek is a Czech international and was the back-up left wing-back last season, making four starts and 13 appearances in total.

At 23 years of age he has a lot of potential an is a good back-up for Bulter. Unfortunately, he looked to pick up a nasty looking injury in the pre-season match against Norwich so won’t feature in this one.

Mönchengladbach switched between a back three and a back four across the season with a trio of versatile centre-backs that helped them do that. Marvin Friedrich (28), Ko Itakura (27) and Nico Elvedi (27) and all experienced defenders coming in to the peak of their careers.

Elvedi was unable to add to his 53 Swiss caps at the Euros as he couldn’t displace Premier League defenders Manuel Akanji and Fabian Schar. He’s been at Mönchengladbach since 2015. He’s a defender's defender, getting stuck in, making tackles and clearing the ball. He is also able to cover the left full-back slot which means he’s comfortable on the left side of a back three despite being right-footed

Japanese international Itakura is the player that sits in the middle of the back three but is given license to get forward. He scored three goals last season but his discipline isn’t the best, picking up nine yellow cards. He also filled in as a defensive midfielder on five occasions last season.

On the right-hand side of the defence is Marvin Friedrich, another experienced Bundesliga defender with three seasons with Union Berlin followed by three so far with Gladbach. In terms of heatmaps, he usually the least advanced of the three defenders and the most defensive.

He has played right-back 30 times in his career so is comfortable covering that side and makes him the perfect candidate for the right centre-back role.

Mönchengladbach are then overstocked in right wing-backs but only have one left wing-back. That’s where young American Joseph Scally has been used on the left on occasion despite being naturally right-footed.

Scally joined from NYCFC in 2021 and has slowly become a more and more important part of the team, making his debut at just 18 years old. He got his best return of four assists and one goal last season and the versatility to cover the left wing-back role means he could have a long career at the club.

There is another 21-year-old who is the natural left wing-back in German Luca Netz. Netz has been at the club for the same amount of time as Scally and has gone through a similar sort of slow integration, becoming a more and more important part of the team as the seasons went on. He also got four assists last season and very much keeps the natural width down the left-hand side.

That’s left old hand Stephen Lainer struggling for starts, a struggle that has not been helped by various injury issues. The Austrian international is another experienced Bundesliga campaigner with 117 appearances and will no doubt prove to be an experienced back up for this coming season.

When Mönchengladbach have played a back three there have been occasions where Franck Honorat has played the wing-back role so I'm going to include him in this section despite the fact that he has also featured as a right winger ahead of Scally on numerous occasions.

His attacking intent is shown by the three goals and nine assists he contributed last season. It was his first season in the Bundesliga having signed from Stade Brestois last summer. He averages just over nine crosses per game and is Mönchengladbach’s main threat with a very similar profile to Wes Burns. The battle with Leif Davis in this one will be fascinating if it does happen.

<h1>Midfield </h1>

Hoffenheim’s midfield can be split into defensive and attacking midfielders in either a three or occasionally a box midfield. The two defensive midfielders are Germans Anton Stach and Grischa Promel. Of the two, Stach is the tackler and the screener. He made the most interceptions of all midfielders in the Bundesliga with 74 and was also third in the league for tackles.

Promel is more attacking of the two with four goals (including two from outside the box) and five assists but he’s also not afraid to put in a tackle. His disciplinary record isn’t the best with ten yellows and a red last season.

The other player who can fill in in the deeper roles is 19-year-old Umut Tohumcu. He made his debut in the 2021/22 season and has slowly been integrated into the squad more and more. He’s very much still finding his feet in professional football and hasn’t set the world alight so far.

Moving on to the more attacking players and we come on to Hoffenheim’s star player. Andre Kramaric will be a name that is familiar to Premier League fans following a brief stint at Leicester City. He scored just two goals in his 15 Premier League appearances and largely looked out of his depth.

It’s been a whole different story in the Bundesliga, however. Kramaric has 132 goals in 284 appearances. Last season he netted 15 in 30 in a unique free role for the team. He often played in an attacking midfield behind two strikers but could equally lead the line and sometimes even drop deeper into a midfield three. The highlight of last season was undoubtedly his hat-trick in the last game of the season against Bayern Munich.

There’s not too much back-up in the number ten roles but someone to watch out for in these friendlies is 19-year-old Tom Bischof who has 12 goals and 11 assists at U19 level and will be hoping to make the most of his pre-season game time, as will Muhammed Damar, who is another young attacking midfielder.

Mönchengladbach also operate in a similar manner to Hoffenheim with a flexible midfield three sometimes switching to two. In both of those formations Julian Weigl is the main destructor in that midfield, making 66 tackles and 48 interceptions last season. Interestingly for a defensive midfielder, he took two penalties scoring both of them.

Ahead of the 28-year-old Weigl were two younger more athletic midfielders in Manu Kone and Rocco Reitz. Kone is a France prospect, most recently captaining their U23 side in a friendly against the USA. This will be his third season in the Bundesliga since signing from French side Toulouse.

Statistically, he doesn’t stand out in either defensive or attacking aspects with his main qualities coming from his dribbling ability. He has a high number of progressive carries and isn’t afraid to take on his man. What is still lacking is his goal and assist return.

That’s not something that can be levelled at Reitz with six goals and three assists last season in what was his breakthrough into the first team following two loans at St Truidense.

Florian Neuhaus is the other member of the midfield unit but unlike the others he is very much an attacking midfielder, although he was used in a more compact midfield three on occasion. He contributed four goals and four assists but hasn’t quite reached his 2020/21 season form which saw him called up to the German national team and receive ten caps.

An experienced addition has been made to that unit this summer with the signing of 31-year-old Austrian Kevin Stoger from fellow Bundesliga side Vfl Bochum, the team who coincidentally beat Town’s last opponents Fortuna Düsseldorf in the relegation/promotion play-off at the end of the season to stay in the league.

Stoger was influential in that comeback with two assists and a calmly taken penalty in regular time as well as scoring another in the shootout. He finished last season with seven goals and nine assists which was a career high for goal contributions his previous highest coming in 2017/18.

<h1>Attackers </h1>

Hoffenheim often played a front two last season with Wout Weghorst and Maximilian Beier forming the most used pairing. Weghorst got seven goals but has since ended his loan and returned to Burnley and was replaced for the last couple of games by 30-year-old Togo international Ihlas Bebou.

Bebou is a versatile forward who has mainly played as a striker but is also comfortable out on either wing. Like Weghorst he scored seven goals last season and also notched up five assists, hitting some excellent form at the end of the season with a brace against Darmstadt.

It’s Beier, however, who produced the main goal output for the team, more than Weghorst and Bebou combined with 16 in the league all at the age of 21. He’ll be hoping to form part of Germany’s new generation alongside Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala and his good form saw him called up into Germany’s Euros squad. His only appearance was a cameo in the final group game against Switzerland but he’ll be hoping to continue his good form this season to try and add to his two caps.

For Mönchengladbach, the formation was a bit more fluid and a lot of their forwards had the ability to play in the central role or on the wings.

We’ve already covered Honorat, but the other winger in the squad is another Frenchman, Nathan N’Goumou. His return was five goals and two assists but it is his high pressing that is his main attribute just about making the top ten for most tackles in the Bundesliga last season. The two winger striker hybrids were Alessane Plea and Robin Hack.

Twenty-five-year-old Hack joined last summer and finished as Mönchengladbach’s top goalscorer with ten goals. Eight of those came in his last nine games before he suffered a foot injury that kept him out of the last game of the season and he looks set to miss this one too having not featured in pre-season so far.

Plea is a player that has never quite fulfilled his promise with just the one cap for France. He plied his trade in his native France for seven seasons before moving to Gladbach for six seasons. He has a healthy goal return of 56 goals in 204 appearances for the German side and at the age of 31 is an experienced member of the frontline.

This just leaves the main strikers. Twenty-eight-year-old American Jordan Siebatchu finished the season leading the line but has since returned to Union Berlin following the expiry of his loan.

The only other striker in the squad last season was 23-year-old Czech Tomas Cvancara. His appearances were limited due to torn ankle ligaments but he had started the season in fine form with a brace on his debut.

He finished with four goals in the league and a couple more in the cup from just seven starts. In the second half of the season he made more appearances off the bench as he recovered from his injury but he’ll be hoping for a good pre-season this year with Siebatchu gone so he can attempt to reclaim the number nine shirt.

His competition will be from new signing Tim Kleindienst who very much fits the blueprint in what Gladbach look for in a striker standing at 6ft 3in tall. He has signed from fellow Bundesliga team Heidenheim with the pull of Gladbach’s historical size representing a step up despite Heidenheim qualifying for Europe by finishing eighth last season.

Kleindienst scored 12 goals and could have scored more as he underperformed his expected goals by almost two goals. At 28 years old he’s spent most of his career in the 2. Bundesliga and has definitely seized his opportunity in his two Bundesliga seasons to date.

Pre-season has been a chance for a couple of young talents to get minutes and young wingers, Armenian Grant-Leon Ramos (21) and Japanese Shio Fukuda (20) have both made impressions with pre-season goals.

We might also see a cameo from 18-year-old, left-footed, right winger, Charles Hermann who has signed on a free from Borussia Dortmund having failed to make the breakthrough there.

<h1>The Teams </h1>

Unlike Town’s two previous pre-season opponents, who were ahead in their preparations, both of these Bundesliga teams are roughly in line with the Blues' pre-season schedules with their campaigns not kicking off until the 17th August.

Hoffenheim have kicked things off with victories against Walldorf (7-1) and Elversberg (3-1). They played Town’s rivals Norwich City on Tuesday afternoon which ended in a 2-2 and will face Town on the Saturday.

Gladbach have also started with four wins, against Vfl Juchen-Garzweiler (5-1), FC Wegberg-Beek (2-0) and Fortuna Sittard (3-1). They played Hoslten Kiel on Monday night (1-0) and will face Town on Friday afternoon.

Neither side have as tight a schedule as Town with longer gaps between their games so will likely be close to full strength. Ipswich on the other hand will almost certainly split their XIs across the games.

Axel Tuanzebe and Omari Hutchinson will be looking to get their first minutes but once again it could be a chance for the likes of Ryan Carr, Finley Barbrook and Leon Ayinde to get a start and try and impress, whilst Jesse Nwabueze and Osman Foyo could get more minutes off of the bench with the squad still being a little stretched injury-wise.

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