Bochum’s away record reads disastrous; now another Champions League contender awaits on Saturday evening. Thomas Reis praised the quality of RB Leipzig – but also sees a small gap that needs to be exploited.
The programme wasn’t a piece of cake for a promoted team: First matchday in Wolfsburg, a Champions League contender. Third matchday in Cologne, against a resurgent team to which coach Steffen Baumgart has breathed new life. Fifth matchday in Munich, no need to elaborate on the quality of the opponent.
The away record of promoted VfL Bochum reads accordingly bad. Three defeats, 1:10 goals, that sounds devastating at first. A closer look, however, shows that the promoted team performed very well overall, excluding the game in Munich (0:7). In Wolfsburg, VfL kept up very well and was not clearly inferior in Cologne either.
For Thomas Reis, RB Leipzig is one of the six or seven clubs in the Bundesliga that are actually out of reach for VfL. “If we want to get something there,” said the Bochum coach, “then everything has to fit for us. “
The starting eleven
It is likely that Reis will start with the same starting eleven as he did against VfB Stuttgart, when the Bochum side were defensively very compact despite a rebuilt back four and allowed VfB virtually no serious goals.
The central defence should again be formed by Armel Bella Kotchap and Erhan Masovic, who did a very solid job against Stuttgart despite his lack of match experience, unagitated and confident.
The match plan
And where is the approach to get at the Saxons, who have won all five of their competitive matches against Bochum so far? “When it comes to counter-pressing,” says Reis, “Leipzig are very good, they usually press high. Of course, that also means that there are spaces for the opponent from time to time, which we want to exploit with our switching game.”
The match plan therefore includes, as tried and tested, quick attacks via the outsides. Gerrit Holtmann has shown increasing form recently, Christopher Antwi-Adjei, deployed on the right, delivered his best game in a Bochum shirt against Stuttgart.
Reis has identified a few “teething problems” with the next opponent, but also admits: “You saw what the team is capable of in the 6-0 win against Hertha. We’re up against very high individual quality.”
Clear instructions for his own team: “We have to be more effective up front. We get into the opponent’s penalty area and have goals, you saw that against Hertha and Stuttgart. But we have to keep working on our goal-scoring, that’s clear.”
Cristian Gamboa is of course not yet an issue in Leipzig, but there is positive news from the right-back, who underwent surgery on his elbow. “He will slowly get back into team training,” announced Reis, “but of course it’s still far from enough for a place in the matchday squad. “