Saturday afternoon sees the meeting of two teams whose Bundesliga campaigns have yet to take off, as bottom of the table Mainz host Monchengladbach at the Opel Arena.
The home side have endured a nightmare start to the new season after a campaign of struggle in season 2019/20 in the German top-flight. The poor start to the campaign has already cost Achim Beierlorzer his job as head coach.
His successor Jan-Moritz Lichte has a tough job on his hands to turn Mainz’s fortunes around as the team heads in gameweek five of the Bundesliga campaign pointless.
Last time out in the German top-flight, Die Nullfunfer suffered a 1-0 home defeat against Bayer Leverkusen. The result means that Mainz have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last six league matches dating back to last season.
The home side has not been great on their own patch of late in the Bundesliga, winning just two of their previous 13 league outings at the Opel Arena. The Leverkusen defeat means that they have now suffered losses in five of their previous six league games on home soil.
Monchengladbach will be disappointed with their underwhelming start to the new Bundesliga campaign. Marco Rose’s team have won just one of their four league games in season 2019/20 after a 1-1 home draw with Wolfsburg last time out.
Some would say that the Foals have not been great, but they haven’t been disastrous either so far this season.
When Rose’s team are involved there is usually goals, as six of their last eight matches in the German top-flight have produced over 2.5 goals.
A factor in those high-scoring games has been that Gladbach have struggled for clean sheets of late, managing to keep their opponents out in just one of their previous ten top-flight matches.
Forebet predicts that the visitors will kick-start their Bundesliga campaign with a victory leaving the home side pointless for another week in the German top-flight.