Bayern Stuttgart preview, victory lap before the finale
Bayern Stuttgart preview: Stuttgart, German powerhouse? 404 Not Found. What used to be a southern derby will just be a Pokal preparation match and Bundesliga title celebration when FC Bayern meets them on Saturday.
Stuttgart, saved by Stevens
Injuries: Harnik, Khedira, Yalcin, Leitner, Sararer
Swabians are used to the following logic: work hard, work even more, get results, be rich. This doesn’t apply at VfB Stuttgart, a hardworking crew that has been among the poor teams this term in the Bundesliga.
The southerners have forgotten one thing in the magic recipe: experience. For most of the season, they had inexperienced Thomas Schneider as a coach, having promoted him from the youth ranks. With disastrous results. His team was threatened with relegation despite having many skilled workhorses such as attacking midfielders Martin Harnik (injured) and Ibrahima Traoré and a central midfielder like Christian Gentner.
The best in intercepting in the league and very good on set pieces, Stuttgart however has been dealing with a makeshift back four for a part of the season and poor defending for most of it. It dominated many games without racking up the points, in part due to lack of finishing and in part due to defensive mistakes.
Attempts to intercept key passes have failed, triple teaming often resulted in letting a pass go through and find the open man. Creative playmaker Alexandru Maxim even missed an open goal once.
When things turned sour, Stuttgart fired Schneider and went for experience with former Schalke coach Huub Stevens. He made sure that they would avoid relegation, now sitting in 15th position.
In that context, Vedad Ibisevic, one of the Bundesliga’s respected strikers because he’s good at everything, hasn’t been the same lately. To the point where he may be on his way out and to the point where veteran Cacau was given the nod to provide an unlikely boost to the attack.
VfB will avoid the cut, but do they have a plan to rebuild into a title contender? No evidence of that yet.
Possible lineup
VfB Stuttgart (4-2-3-1)
Ulreich
Sakai, Rüdiger, Neidermaier, Rausch
Gruezo, Genter
Traoré, Divadi, Werner
Cacau
Bayern, go with strength
Injury: Starke. Suspended: Boateng, Rafinha
On Saturday, Bayern will parade with its new home kit, trying to impress the fans and nudge them towards the fan shop. Fair enough, but if you want more sales, a win will be more inspiring than anything else.
The key to this game could be guessed by just anyone. Build on the results from the Bremen and Hamburg game with some decent attacking work. Bayern style.
Having been spared criticism while everyone was taking a breather this week, Pep Guardiola should feel less pressure when making his selection. Yet, he shouldn’t experiment. This is the last competitive game before the Pokalfinale against Dortmund and FCB has to go into it in good spirits. Start the starters in every position, such as Lahm at right-back and Javi Martinez in the midfield. Even this blog’s naysayers have to admit that insisting to see that combo to shore up the defence was right.
Other than that, Stuttgart has enough defensive weaknesses for the Bavarians to exploit joyfully. But for that to happen, it will require sweating a little. Stuttgart will battle for pride to show that they are not dead. This may stain the shining new kits, but they can always wash them after…
I predict a win by a pair of goals.
Possible lineup
FC Bayern (4-2-3-1)
Neuer
Lahm, van Buyten, Dante, Alaba
Javi, Schweinsteiger
Robben, Kroos, Ribéry
Mandzukic
Game details
Matchday: 34
Time: 10 May, 15:30 CET
Location: Allianz Arena, München
TV listings
Referee: Bastian Dankert