Borussia Mönchengladbach – VfL Wolfsburg: Wolfsburg’s Defense Left To The Wolves (4-0)

Two regular underwhelmers of recent Bundesliga seasons faced off to mark the beginning of the 11th round of fixtures. Both Borussia Mönchengladbach and Wolfsburg did not seem in any mood to buck their unwanted trend in the first few months of the season as they headed into this fixture placed 11th and 9th respectively, and their underlying numbers were not much more encouraging. It was fitting, then, that both ended the game level on points right at the middle of the standings.

Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.

After their very impressive Champions League qualification in 2019/20, Gladbach’s league finishes make for rather sorry reading: 8th, 10th and 10th. Their fans have now grown accustomed to the perennial disappointment of watching a side that clearly shows great potential but equally surely does not nearly live up to it, so the pressure on Gerardo Seoane’s position was much less than it might have been three odd years ago. Still, he needed to start getting things rolling in the right direction if he did not want to become another victim of what seems to be developing into a seasonal cycle in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Wolfsburg last qualified for the Champions League a year after Gladbach in 2020/21, but their subsequent drop turned out to be even more dramatic. They finished a lowly 12th thereafter, before somewhat recovering to 8th last term. Their near miss with Europe seems to have earned Niko Kovač another shot at it, but another failure to break into the top six could well cost him his job as well. So far, his side do not seem on . . .