Hertha Berlin match preview
By: j | September 11th, 2008Felix Magath’s Wolfsburg travel to the Olympiastadion to face Hertha Berlin in a key Bundesliga matchup this Saturday. With both clubs less that overwhelmed by the start of the campaign and after a lengthy international break, it promises to be anxious affair.
Recent Form
Hertha Berlin – combined (1 W, 1 D, 1 L) (4 GS, 5 GA)
Aug 17 Eintracht Frankfurt 0 – 2 Hertha Berlin
Aug 23 Hertha Berlin 1 – 1 Arminia Bielefeld
Aug 31 Bayern Munich 4 – 1 Hertha Berlin
Wolfsburg – combined (1 W, 2 D, 0 L) (6 GS, 5 GA)
Aug 16 VfL Wolfsburg 2 – 1 FC Köln
Aug 24 VfL Bochum 2 – 2 VfL Wolfsburg
Aug 30 VfL Wolfsburg 2 – 2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Like Hertha Berlin, Die Wölfe are having problems achieving their lofty pre-season expectations. Hertha Berlin is coming off hideous 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Jürgen Klinsmann’s Bayern Munich. Excluding that match, through the early part of the season Hertha has shown very disciplined defending, good marking and patience. Whether that match was a one-off or not, Lucien Favre has not stood still and brought in Ukrainian Andriy Voronin on-loan from Liverpool. However while he is likely to make a substantial impact upon the striker deficit attack, given his involvement in international matches and lack of preparation time with teammates, he is unlikely to be at optimal levels. While Hertha has had problems finding the score-sheet, they possess a solid pedigree of talent, including Serbia’s Marko Pantelić, Poland’s Łukasz Piszczek and playmaker Raffael. Should they get this solved, which primarily relates to movement without the ball and creating open spaces, they will have the ability to be a serious offensive threat.
Tactically Felix Magath must begin to address the defensive lapses that have been created through the offensive attacking needs. Wolfsburg has a very bad habit of falling behind early and abandoned its defensive position early. With the Bosnia and Herzegovina tandem of Zvjezdan Misimović and Edin Džeko along with Grafite looking very solid in the attack, Wolfsburg needs to play like an upper-tier team and control their end. Cristian Zaccardo and Andrea Barzagli need need to be a fixture in the back-line and firmly establish the classic aggressive model of dictating the oppositions attack with your defense. Possibly most importantly the club needs to internally address within its coaching what precisely they are doing pre-match that the work rate is hideously low in the first fifteen minutes.
I will report on the match as it concludes.
| P | W | D | L | GS | GA | Pts | |
| Schalke 04 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| Hamburger SV | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
| Borussia Dortmund | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 7 |
| Bayer Leverkusen | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 6 |
| VfB Stuttgart | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| TSG Hoffenheim | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| Bayern Munich | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| VfL Wolfsburg | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| FC Köln | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Hertha Berlin | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| Karlsruhe | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Werder Bremen | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
| Arminia Bielefeld | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 2 |
| Eintracht Frankfurt | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| VfL Bochum | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Energie Cottbus | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Hannover 96 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
Category: Wolfsburg Team News
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