Arminia Bielefeld - VfL Bochum

With 5 wins to begin Bochum was doing very well and it looks like no one can stop them at current form but the last two games they were not able to win, only 2 draws were the outcome. Nevertheless they are coming as leader to Bielefeld and want to start winning again. Overall they are very conservative if they were asked about promotion right now. The home side has different problems and they would be happy if they stand on place 12 at the end of the Season. They know the business very well there as they were relegated after one Season after promotion two years ago. This time they want to do a better job but for this they have to start to score goals in their own stadium too. They were not able to score a single goal in 3 home matches and also could not win one there.

Coach Meier was very pleased with he outcome and the game from his team in Freiburg. They did the job there and got a Point against a team who are aiming for more. Maybe this can be a good reason for them today too. They get more space against a team who is very offensive minded and where they do not make the game, they can go on counter attacks like some days ago. The defensive line looked very compact against Freiburg only in the end where they stand under huge pressure they made some mistakes but in first half it was really well.
Compared to the match in Freiburg there is no reason for Coach Meier to changes anything. He has not the alternatives anyway as with Strifler, Brinkmann, Müller, Salger and additional van der Biezen are a lot of alternatives out due to injury. Maybe a changes can be made on the wing where Hemlein has an uptrend but he could not convince also like all the other players on this position. Therefore maybe Affane can be a good choice here and the next test for Meier, but it is very open of course.

Bochum's run was stopped in the last two games although they did not lose but they lost the first Points. But Coach Verbeek is very pleased with the team and the outcome so far. He wants to bring the same starting lineup for the eighth time now. He does not like to changes or rotate much. He said that all the players are fit and why should he changes anything or rest some players for the next game. He mentioned that they have training normal and prepared to this game as always. The players are all young and they recover very fast. He wants to count on his strongest lineup of course, also because of the huge respect he has for the home side. He spoke very well from Arminia who is very compact and has a lot of fighting spirit and play very organized. Also they do not allow many opportunities to score goals therefore they have to be warned and ahead of all the actions to be very effective. The only changes he has to made was to replace injured Nando Raffael. He will be replaced by Novikovas on bench for today.