Borussia Monchengladbach will be looking to return to winning ways when they host RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga on Saturday evening.
The visitors, meanwhile, made an impressive start in Marco Rose’s first game in charge last weekend, as they beat their new manager’s former side Borussia Dortmund 3-0.
Gladbach made an excellent start under a new manager themselves after appointing Daniel Farke during the summer, but it would be fair to say that their form has stuttered in recent weeks.
Two points from their last three games certainly does not represent anything close to a disaster, especially when one of those points came against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, but the former Norwich City boss would have hoped for a better return since winning two and drawing one of his first three league games in charge.
In fairness, Farke appeared to set his side up to avoid defeat away to Freiburg last weekend, and that is exactly what they achieved in the form of a drab 0-0 stalemate. Die Fohlen have regularly leaked too many goals in recent years, which was an accusation labelled at Farke during his time in East Anglia, too, so the 45-year-old would have been content to keep an in-form side at arm’s length for the majority of the match.
Doing the same against Leipzig’s impressive attacking options on Saturday may prove a tougher challenge, albeit they should be more accommodating in the other direction, which would be a boost for the fans at Borussia Park having seen their team blank in their last two matches.
Indeed, Leipzig were incredibly impressive against Dortmund last weekend, with Rose clearly making an immediate impact after Domenico Tedesco’s reign had drastically spiralled out of control in the form of 4-0 and 4-1 defeats to Eintracht Frankfurt and Shakhtar Donetsk respectively.
For Leipzig to follow that up by not even allowing BVB a single shot on target during the encounter at Red Bull Arena was an incredibly impressive achievement given that Rose had only had two days on the training ground with his new set of players.
Willi Orban had provided his new boss with the perfect start by scoring a thumping header after six minutes, before Dominik Szoboszlai doubled his side’s lead moments before the half-time interval with a crashing effort from distance. Amadou Haidara wrapped up the victory late on, long after it had been apparent that Dortmund would not be getting back into the game in any case.
Despite losing 2-0 to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, Rose would have taken plenty of positives from his side’s performance during the defeat, having been the better side throughout the first half.
Had Timo Werner and Christopher Nkunku been more ruthless in front of goal, they would have given their team a lead to protect, but instead Federico Valverde’s and Marco Asensio’s late strikes left Leipzig point-less in Group F after two matches of their Champions League campaign.
Die Roten Bullen’s attention must quickly return to domestic matters, though, in the last match prior to the international break. A win at Borussia Park on Saturday would see them leapfrog their opponents in the table and almost certainly ensure that they would occupy a top-half position in the table when Rose’s men return to action in October.
Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form:
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RB Leipzig Bundesliga form:
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RB Leipzig form (all competitions):
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We say: Borussia Monchengladbach 2-2 RB Leipzig
We expect to see goals in Monchengladbach on Saturday, with both sides more effective offensively than they are defensively.
The visitors could be tired after their trip to Madrid, but should Silva be restored to the starting XI, they are more likely to put away the chances that they will almost certainly create.