Basement club VfL Bochum travel to Veltins-Arena for their Bundesliga encounter against fellow strugglers Schalke 04 on Saturday.
The hosts are yet to win in the top flight this season, while the visitors have not claimed a single point from their opening five matches.
Match preview
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Since securing promotion from the second tier last season, Schalke have struggled to hit the ground running in the top flight, as they have drawn three and lost two of their first five fixtures.
Die Konigsblauen were thrashed 6-1 in their last home match against Union Berlin, and they responded with a 1-1 draw away at Stuttgart last weekend, with Simon Terodde cancelling out a strike from Chris Fuhrich.
Frank Kramer's men are now hovering just above the bottom three on goal difference and they sit three clear of Saturday's opponents Bochum at the foot of the table.
Schalke will be confident of opening their account in the Bundesliga when they face Bochum, as they have won each of their last five top-flight home games against them, keeping a clean sheet in each of the last three. However, their last competitive meeting was back in January 2010 when both sides played out a 2-2 draw in Bochum.
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Schalke would have hoped for a better start to the new campaign, but they have at least picked up more points that Bochum, who have lost each of their opening five Bundesliga matches.
Scoring just three goals and conceding 15 – including seven at home to Bayern Munich – the only way is up for Thomas Reis's side, and their recent performance against Hoffenheim will at least instill some belief in turning their fortunes around in the near future.
Bochum were on the verge of claiming their first point of the season against Hoffenheim last weekend, with the score at 2-2 heading into the closing stages, but an 88th-minute winner from substitute Mu'nas Dabbur ensured that the visitors would leave empty handed.
Die Unabsteigbaren will be keen to avoid equalling an unwanted Bundesliga record of losing their opening six matches of a new season – previously done by Fortuna Dusseldorf in 1991-92 and Mainz 05 in 2020-21 – when they face Schalke on Saturday, but this fixture against a fellow struggler could be the perfect opportunity for them to finally come away with a positive result.
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Team News
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Schalke duo Thomas Ouwejan and Marcin Kaminski have both stepped up their recover from injury, but both players will not be involved this weekend.
Liverpool loanee Sepp van den Berg made his debut for the club last weekend and he is set to continue at centre-back alongside Maya Yoshida.
Jordan Larsson, Dominick Drexler and Marius Bulter are all expected to provide support in attack for central striker Terodde.
As for Bochum, Jacek Goralski, Konstantinos Stafylidis, Dominique Heintz and Paul Grave are all ruled out due to injury.
Simon Zoller, who scored his first two goals of the season last weekend, is set to lead the line with Philipp Hofmann, while Kevin Stoger and Anthony Losilla could both start again in centre-midfield.
Schalke 04 possible starting lineup:
Schwolow; Brunner, Yoshida, Kaminski, Calhanoglu; Krauss, Flick; Larsson, Drexler, Butler; Terodde
VfL Bochum possible starting lineup:
Riemann; Gamboa, Ordets, Heintz; Osei-Tutu, Losilla, Stoger, Janko; Asano; Hofmann, Zoller
We say: Schalke 04 2-1 VfL Bochum
These two sides, who are desperate to get off the mark, will view this fixture as a good opportunity to end their poor starts to the new season.
Considering both sides look vulnerable at the back, we expect both teams to find the net on Saturday, but Schalke may just do enough to claim a slender victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Oliver Thomas
