Rotation? It's possible against Mainz!

Markus Gisdol on…

…the opposition

Mainz are a good team. Shortly before the transfer window shut they signed two excellent players: Sami Allagui and Jonas Hofmann. Both of them are capable of putting our defence under a lot of pressure. We don't really need to speak about Shinji Okazaki; like the rest of the team, he is dangerous and has an eye for goal. He's been in great form this season – everything he's touched in the box has turned to gold, headers, volleys, the works. He's scored plenty.

…the personnel

The squad for the game in Mainz will be the same as the one that was available against Freiburg. This means that Sejad Salihovic and Ermin Bicakcic are yet to recover from their respective injuries. Jin-Su Kim is still at the Asian Games.

…the current situation at TSG

I was very impressed with the character shown by the boys to get a late equaliser against Freiburg, having been 3-2 down going in to injury time. Conceding after fighting back into the game like we did often breaks a team, but we fought on to equalise again. We've had to rotate the team due to the amount of games we've played this week and the injuries in the squad. I think there will be more changes to our starting line-up tomorrow. It's possible that Jannik Vestergaard will start again. Despite being a defender, he brings good quality to the holding midfield role; he helps make the team tick from that position.

Eugen Polanski on…

…the opposition

Mainz started quite badly with their loss in the cup and in the Europa League qualifiers. Since then, the team has come together. That was always one of Mainz's strengths. The game doesn't have a particular importance to me, even though I still keep in touch with one or two people in Mainz. They are a tough team to play against in every respect. They'll try to bother us constantly. But we plan to do that too.

…the current situation

The game against Freiburg wasn't a relapse for us. Their goals came from individual mistakes and from a penalty so we don't have to question our system. These mistakes have to and will be stopped. We have a good team spirit and that was definitely on show during the game. We wanted to turn the scoreline around.

Past meetings:

The two teams have faced each other ten times in the Bundesliga – only once have TSG left the field victorious. There has been a draw on three occasions. The record doesn't look good for TSG. Hoffenheim threw away two clear leads last season. Markus Gisdol's side led 2-0 in both meetings, but weren't able to win either game. Their only win came in the 2011/12 season with a 4-0 romp in Mainz. So there is some hope…

The form of the opposition:

Mainz needed a few weeks to find their feet under new manager Kasper Hjulmand. But it looks as if the competitive games simply came a little too early. The club lost in both the Europa League qualification round and in the first round of the DFB cup. Since then, it's been much going better for Mainz – they are unbeaten after five league games. They made other teams sit up and take notice with a 2-0 home win over Borussia Dortmund last Saturday and it showed what Mainz are capable of. The team will be satisfied with a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt earlier in the week.

The key battles:

Mainz operate in a compact way, but one man who is, as the Americans say, “on fire”, is Shinji Okazaki: Five games, five goals. The Japanese striker is hard to stop at the moment. TSG have already found out how dangerous he can be. He scored two goals at the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena in the second half of last season. How do you deal with Mainz in September 2014? You control Okazaki. It'll be important for TSG to defend well as they did in the first four games of the season. They can only deal with the Mainz attacks by stopping the Japanese player. Overall, it'll be important for TSG to keep their tempo high and to find the right way to deal with the physicality of Mainz. One thing is certain though – Mainz won't be looking forward to dealing with TSG's counterattacks.

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