Our next opponents: Completely different body language

Position

"It's been a very turbulent season so far," said Marcel in the middle of last week ahead of the 3-2 defeat for Wolfsburg at SC Freiburg. The VfL sporting director could not have summed it up more succinctly. The club has been on an emotional rollercoaster this season. The Wolves made a brilliant start to the league campaign and were top with four wins after four games. The Champions League participants then went eight games without a win and a fourth defeat in succession plus dropping down to ninth place led to the club parting company with coach Mark van Bommel. Florian Kohfeldt took over as head coach at the end of October and he made a successful start in Leverkusen of all places with a 2-0 win at Bayer 04. The 39-year-old coach did succeed in taking VfL back up to fourth spot by matchday 11. But the flying start soon came to an end for Wolfsburg. A rapid decline began at the end of November 2021. Up to January of this year, the team had lost nine out of eleven games in the Champions League and the Bundesliga (with two games drawn), finished bottom in their group in Europe and, on matchday 20, they were fifteenth in the league again, just two points above the play-off spot.

The 4-1 win against SpVgg Greuther Fürth at the beginning of February marked a change in fortune in a number of ways. VfL ended a goal drought after 406 minutes with a strike from Aster Vranckx as they clocked up a first victory in almost two months. The Wolves have picked up ten points in the last six games and are now twelfth in the table with an eight-point lead over sixteenth ahead of matchday 27. "We've made significant steps forward on the pitch," said Marcel Schäfer. "You can see that training is more effective and routines come automatically." However, the Kohfeldt team did suffer their thirteenth defeat of the season at SC Freiburg last week.

Personnel

It started going downhill for the Wolves when the Austria international Xaver Schlager tore his cruciate on matchday three. The 24-year-old key performer had a brilliant season last term alongside Maximilian Arnold in holding midfield. The two played a crucial part on the way to securing Champions League qualification. Schlager made his comeback after six months on the sidelines in the 2-2 draw away to Borussia Mönchengladbach three weeks ago and now he is again trying to provide stability and balance in the VfL team alongside Arnold. The midfielder has said: "I'll have to be patient as other players like Aster Vranckx have done a good job in my absence." The 19-year-old Belgian Vranckx showed what he could do with a brace against Fürth. "Aster can play as a 10," said Kohfeldt. The head coach now has almost all his players available. The Germany international and U21 European Champion Lukas Nmecha made his comeback after a broken ankle in the 1-0 win against Union Berlin at the end of December. Following the departure of Wout Weghorst to Premier League club Burnley at the end of January, Kohfeldt has options in attack with the two winter signings Max Kruse (Union Berlin) and Jonas Wind (FC Copenhagen) who have fitted in quickly and already scored two goals. The 23-year-old Wind was voted ‘Rookie of the Month’ in a DFL vote in February. Luca Waldschmidt, who joined VfL from Benfica in the summer of 2021, has not yet really made his mark at Wolfsburg due to a number of injuries.

Since taking the helm, Kohfeldt has preferred a 3-4-2-1 formation with the back three recently made up of stalwart John Brooks, Sebastiaan Bornauw and Maxence Lacroix. Indispensable regular starters are left-back Jerome Roussillon and Germany international Ridle Baku on the right side of defence. First choice keeper Koen Casteels missed out at Freiburg due to hip problems and he was replaced by Pavao Pervan and had not returned to full training by the middle of the week. There is a question mark over him playing against the Werkself. Maximilian Philipp and Renato Steffen missed training due to illness.

Performers

The VfL team, whose confidence has been low for large parts of the season, have increasingly rediscovered their determination as a team since the start of the year. After the somewhat fortunate 1-0 win against Union Berlin, Kohfeldt commented: "I think the issue of attitude has changed with us. I’m really sure we wouldn’t have won this game a few weeks ago.” There is no doubt VfL Wolfsburg have outstanding players throughout the team. The fact the Wolves now have a different mentality compared with the end of the first half of the season was also demonstrated in the 3-2 defeat at SC Freiburg when VfL fought their way back into the game after going 2-0 down. "In the second half, we showed we have developed in recent weeks and were able to fight back as a team – with a completely different body language," said Kohfeldt.

Problems

Wolfsburg produced a really strong second-half performance at Freiburg and had a good first half against Union Berlin the week before. But they did give away a 2-0 lead in the 2-2 draw at Borussia Mönchengladbach. VfL have rarely impressed for the full 90 minutes. That may also be linked to the fact the team has the weakest overall performance levels of all clubs in the Bundesliga. The shortcoming for Kohfeldt, "that we can't produce certain things in our game consistently over 90 minutes." In addition, the Wolves have again and again made individual errors in defence, which striker Max Kruse summed up after the defeat at Freiburg: "In good German, our defending was crap." The 33-year-old was particularly annoyed by the second and third goals conceded. "We weren't alert enough at the crucial moments." VfL have conceded 40 goals after 26 games, which is already three more than in the whole of last season.

Prediction

Despite recent improvements, VfL Wolfsburg are still in the relegation battle in twelfth place on 31 points. Kohfeldt warned: "We need to be really alert. It will only be over when it's mathematically certain." If VfL can rediscover their consistency and stability in defence then staying up should not be a problem. Particularly with key performers like Schlager and Lukas Nmecha being available again and new signings Kruse and Wind now providing the additional strength required in attack.