Wolfsburg will be looking to end a poor run of form by returning to winning ways in the Bundesliga when they welcome Stuttgart to the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday.
The hosts are winless in five games across all competitions, whilst the visitors linger above the relegation places despite picking up four points from their last two outings.
Match preview
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Wolfsburg boss Florian Kohfeldt unfortunately finds himself on a similar path to his predecessor as things stand heading into matchday 15 of the Bundesliga this weekend.
The German boss replaced Mark van Bommel back in October after the Dutchman had initially won his first four Bundesliga matches, before going eight matches without a win in all competitions.
Kohfeldt was brought in to arrest that slide in form and performances, but whilst he himself then won his first three games overall, since then the Wolves are winless in their last five, including four successive defeats.
Back-to-back losses in both the league and the Champions League have seen Wolfsburg drop to eighth in the Bundesliga, and exit Europe altogether following a last-placed finish in their group.
The most recent of these was on Wednesday evening, when the Wolves were comprehensively beaten 3-1 on home soil by Lille, with the scoreline even flattering the hosts due to the number of chances created by their French opponents.
Renato Steffen netted a late consolation, but it heightened the concerns surrounding the similar dip in form that led to Van Bommel's sacking as manager just two months ago.
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Meanwhile, Stuttgart's recent concerning run of form saw them win just once in 12 attempts, which had briefly seen them drop into the relegation playoff spot in the Bundesliga.
However, following a crucial 2-1 home win over Mainz 05, Pellegrino Matarazzo and his side followed that up with a 2-2 draw with Hertha Berlin last weekend to make it four points from two games.
The American boss will have been frustrated with the fact that his side failed to seal all three points last time out though, after Omar Marmoush and Philipp Forster had given Die Roten a comfortable 2-0 lead inside 19 minutes.
Letting a two-goal lead slip against a similarly-matched side on home soil is a sign of the struggles that Stuttgart have found themselves in this season, despite their impressive ninth-placed finish on their return to the top flight last campaign.
Following the four-point return across the last two games though, Matarazzo's men have at least lifted themselves back above Augsburg and off the playoff spot in the process, although remaining just one place and one point above them means fears of a 'second-season syndrome' continue.
In order to climb the table and remove themselves from danger, Stuttgart will require the return of a number of injured players, as although there have been a few making their way back over the last few weeks, there remains several important players on the sidelines at the moment, including last season's top goalscorer Sasa Kalajdzic.
In addition though, Matarazzo must find a solution to his side's troubles on their travels, with Stuttgart one of five teams in the division still winless on the road ahead of their seventh away day of the season on Saturday.
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Team News
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Kohfeldt will remain without three long-term absentees on Saturday, with William, Xaver Schlager and Bartosz Bialek still on the sidelines.
Admir Mehmedi will also join the trio for at least another week or so, but the hosts have no fresh injury concerns to deal with.
Reverting back to his preferred 3-4-3 could be an option for Kohfeldt, which would see John Brooks come back into the side and Ridle Baku likely introduced into a right wing-back role again, where the young German has been highly-impressive so far this campaign.
As for Stuttgart, the previously-mentioned Kalajdzic is expected to remain out for around another week or so, and he is joined on the sidelines by Fabian Bredlow, Chris Fuhrich, Erik Thommy, Enzo Millot and Mohamed Sankoh.
Roberto Massimo was substituted at half time last week due to illness, but he is expected to have recovered to be able to start in the right wing-back role once more.
Few changes, if any, are expected from their visitors following their improved performances and results in the last two matches.
Wolfsburg possible starting lineup:
Casteels; Lacroix, Guilavogui, Brooks; Baku, Vrancx, Arnold, Otavio; Steffen, L. Nmecha; Weghorst
Stuttgart possible starting lineup:
Muller; Mavropanos, Anton, Ito; Massimo, Endo, Karazor, Sosa; Forster, Mangala; Marmoush
We say: Wolfsburg 2-1 Stuttgart
Despite the gap between these sides in the table, we believe this will be a tight encounter on Saturday.
The hosts only have a couple of days to recover from their Champions League decider in midweek, compared to a full week from their visitors, but despite this, as well as their poor run of form, we are predicting a narrow home victory for them here.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Wolfsburg win with a probability of 42.91%. A win for Stuttgart had a probability of 31.81% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wolfsburg win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.51%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.98%) and 2-0 (7.14%). The likeliest Stuttgart win was 0-1 (7.97%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.96%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5% likelihood.
