Mainz Preview- Diego is ours

By: Mohamed | August 28th, 2010

Werder Bremen fans have every reason not to be feeling good today as they watch their former star player making his return to the Bundesliga but in different colors. The deal to bring Diego to the VolksWagen Arena was concluded late on Thursday night with the player being presented in a press conference on Friday morning. He will be wearing No.28 for the coming season, the same name number he wore for the Bianconeri last season. It is not yet confirmed if we have all the documents in place for Diego to take part in today’s game against FSV Mainz but this won’t deter us from basking in the glory of getting our hands on a marquee signing of his caliber. Wilkommen Herr Diego!

Come in # 28!

Looking into today’s game, it seems like Mainz are carrying their good form of the 2nd part of last season with them. The way they handled VfB Stuttgart showcased their menace particularly at home. They lined up in a diamond 4-4-2 formation with Lewis Holtby the architect of their two goals that we were scored by their forwards; Allagui and Rasmussen.

Thus, it is will be interesting to see how McClaren will be approaching this fixture. He must be really determined to get over the disappointment of that last gasp loss against Bayern last week. Most probably we will continue with the 4-2-3-1 formation used against the Bavarians with Josue and Cicero protecting the back four and keeping Holtby in check. The right back position was our Achilles heel against Bayern with young Pekarik constantly skinned by Ribery so expect to see Riether taking his position. So it looks like we will be starting the game with something similar to this:

(4-2-3-1): Benaglio; Riether, Kjaer, Barzagli, Schaefer; Josue, Cicero; Ziani, Misimovic, Mandzukic; Dzeko

Let’s hope we will nick the 3 points today as any other result such as this will be a dent to our hopes of recapturing the spirit of 2009.

Cheers and have a good Saturday!