SC Freiburg (A) Thursday 5 Oct 5:45pm ko (TNT Sports 2)
Willkommen im Schwarzwald!
As Munichhammer has already said no Lederhosen will be involved, this is Baden not Bavaria, a bit like mistaking Mancs for Scousres, Mackems for Geordies or Kiwis for Aussies, it is not going to end well.
SC Freiberg aka the Breisgau Brazilians are in the Europa League for the second season in a row, they finished 5th last season and were runners up in the Pokal to RB Leipzig the season before who qualified for Champions League. They finished third in the group, were relegated to the Conference League and were knocked out by Fiorentina in the play offs
They are currently 5th having beaten Augsburg 2-0 on Sunday.
Not much has changed over the summer apart from GK Mark Flekken joining Brentford who kept more clean sheets last season (13) than any other keeper in the Bundesliga. He has been replaced by German U21 Noah Atubolu who hasn't done badly apart from conceding 5 against Stuttgart and 4 against Borussia Dortmund.
Other players worth paying attention to are Italian LW Vincento Grifo who was top scorer last season (17) and made Kicker magazine's team of the season. Another of Kicker's team of the season was German international CB Matthias Ginter. Czech international RW Roland Sallai is currently top scores with 3 although one of those was against SV Oberachern from the German equivalent of the Conference.
The big miss from the squad is club captain LB Christian Günter who broke his arm in a friendly against FC Zurich, came back for two games before breaking it again in training. A German Dean Ashton?
Austrian international CF Michael Gregoritsch missed two games with a calf injury but got a minute at the end of the win over Augsburg so maybe not full fit.
Manager Christian Streich has spent his entire coaching career at Freiburg, starting as youth coach in 1995, promoted to assistant manager in 2007 and then appointed head coach in December 2011. He's been in the job 11 years, 9 months and 2 days despite getting relegated at the end of 2014/15 season but they only spent one season in Bundesliga 2.
Amazingly he's not Freiburg's longest serving manager, that honour belongs to Volker Finke who lasted exactly 16 years from 1991 to 2007. Finke was the longest serving manager in Germany but Frank Schmidt of FC Heidenheim reached 16 years and one day two weeks ago and is still going strong.
That still leaves the question, why does the Freiburg badge have Mary Poppins umbrella on it?
As Munichhammer has already said no Lederhosen will be involved, this is Baden not Bavaria, a bit like mistaking Mancs for Scousres, Mackems for Geordies or Kiwis for Aussies, it is not going to end well.
SC Freiberg aka the Breisgau Brazilians are in the Europa League for the second season in a row, they finished 5th last season and were runners up in the Pokal to RB Leipzig the season before who qualified for Champions League. They finished third in the group, were relegated to the Conference League and were knocked out by Fiorentina in the play offs
They are currently 5th having beaten Augsburg 2-0 on Sunday.
Not much has changed over the summer apart from GK Mark Flekken joining Brentford who kept more clean sheets last season (13) than any other keeper in the Bundesliga. He has been replaced by German U21 Noah Atubolu who hasn't done badly apart from conceding 5 against Stuttgart and 4 against Borussia Dortmund.
Other players worth paying attention to are Italian LW Vincento Grifo who was top scorer last season (17) and made Kicker magazine's team of the season. Another of Kicker's team of the season was German international CB Matthias Ginter. Czech international RW Roland Sallai is currently top scores with 3 although one of those was against SV Oberachern from the German equivalent of the Conference.
The big miss from the squad is club captain LB Christian Günter who broke his arm in a friendly against FC Zurich, came back for two games before breaking it again in training. A German Dean Ashton?
Austrian international CF Michael Gregoritsch missed two games with a calf injury but got a minute at the end of the win over Augsburg so maybe not full fit.
Manager Christian Streich has spent his entire coaching career at Freiburg, starting as youth coach in 1995, promoted to assistant manager in 2007 and then appointed head coach in December 2011. He's been in the job 11 years, 9 months and 2 days despite getting relegated at the end of 2014/15 season but they only spent one season in Bundesliga 2.
Amazingly he's not Freiburg's longest serving manager, that honour belongs to Volker Finke who lasted exactly 16 years from 1991 to 2007. Finke was the longest serving manager in Germany but Frank Schmidt of FC Heidenheim reached 16 years and one day two weeks ago and is still going strong.
That still leaves the question, why does the Freiburg badge have Mary Poppins umbrella on it?
Comments
Fabianski
Kehrer Mavropanos Ogbonna Emerson
Alvarez Ward-Prowse
Bowen Kudus Paqueta
Ings
Kehrer - Mavropanos - Aguerd - Emerson
Ward-Prowse - Soucek
Bowen - Kudus - Paqueta
Antonio
Few more first team players in what will be a tough away game.
Fabianski
Johnson - Mavropanos - Kehrer - Scarles
Fornals- Soucek
Ward-Prowse- Kudus - Benrahma
Mubama
Ings is too slow and not suited for the lone-striker role. Cornet doesn't seem to be match-fit.
Bowen not mentioned, so I'm assuming he's OK.
Antonio (tight adductor),
Johnson (tight groin)
Creswell (tight fit)
The Hammers are on a run of 16 games without defeat, level with Pep Guardiola's current Manchester City team, Don Revie's Leeds in the 1960s and Bill Nicholson's 1970s Tottenham side.
Subs: Areola (GK), Anang (GK), Zouma, Ogbonna, Emerson, Souček, Coventry, Cornet, Benrahma, Ings, Mubama
I'm pleased we're trying someone other than Ings up front tbh. I hope Kehrer has a better time at LB than the only other occasion I can remember him there.
It looks like a 4-4-2 with Bowen and Paqueta up front, Fornals left midfield and Kudus right.