"Three points would be the best anniversary present"

Julian Nagelsmann on:

The opposition: There’s not a lot to say about Wolfsburg. They were able to bring on Yunus Malli, Mario Gomez and Daniel Divadi during their cup game at Bayern so you cannot question the quality they have in the squad. They are not having the season they would have hoped for but they will still be extremely dangerous on Sunday. They play a little bit more defensive than Wolfsburg teams of years gone by and they perhaps do not change the play up as quickly as they would like but they have some exceptional footballers in their squad who have the ability to decide a game. What side of them we see on Sunday is tough to call but as I saw in the cup game, they would have taken a lot of that performance.

His squad: Jeremy Toljan, Fabian Schär and Lukas Rupp have not trained this week and will miss Sunday’s game. It is hard to know how much longer Lukas Rupp will be out for. He has got a serious inflammation in his knee. Hopefully he will start making progress soon. As it stands we will go there with 18 players.

Footballing outlook: My team is very good at recreating what I and my coaching staff ask of them and we are where we are as a result. Everyone is contributing to the overall success we’re having and that can only happen if you have everyone on board with what you are trying to do.

Footballing outlook 2: I’m going to spend my one year anniversary training, on a flight and them in a Hotel, where I am going to watch Saturday evening’s game. There will be no bottles of bubbly on ice and I am genuinely only thinking of February 2016 when I was asked to take over. The best anniversary present would be three points on Sunday.

Footballing outlook 3: It’s very important that I treat every player the same. We’re giving everyone the same help and guidance, whether they are in the starting 11 or not. From there it is up to the boys and their character as to whether or not they can swallow the bitter pill and keep working hard. When they are rewarded like Marco Terrazzino and Adam Szalai were against Mainz then it is a great feeling for everyone.

Head2Head:

The sides have met 17 times in the Bundesliga, but the stats do not favour TSG. They have picked up just five wins and four draws from those contests, while Wolfsburg have taken the points on the other eight occasions. Hoffenheim will look to start a trend of away results after under Julian Nagelsmann after collecting a win and a draw from the two home games with the young manager in charge. 

Opponents form:

Wolfsburg returned from the winter break and beat Hamburg 1-0 but have since lost both Bundesliga matches they have played, losing 2-1 in front of their own fans against Augsburg before going down 1-0 in Köln. Valerien Ismael’s side were also knocked out of the DFB Cup in midweek at Bayern Munich.

Key duels:

Wolfsburg are not having the season they wanted and the transfer of Mario Gomez last summer has not exactly gone to plan. But, the striker is gaining momentum and has scored in two of the three league game since the winter break. Gomez is also historically dangerous against TSG, having scored seven goals in nine games against Hoffe. He has also never lost against TSG but if Nagelsmann’s men can keep him silent, they may just be able to change that.

Match facts and statistics »