Preview: VfL Bochum vs. Borussia Monchengladbach - prediction, team news, lineups

The visitors head into the encounter one point behind their forthcoming opponents, after both teams suffered defeat last time out.

Match preview

Indeed, after already holding Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt to 1-1 draws this season, Bochum would have held a small amount of belief that they could have caused an upset away to Bayern Munich last weekend.

However, the reigning champions showed no mercy to their opponents, running out 7-0 winners at the Allianz Arena. England striker Harry Kane scored his first hat-trick for the Bavarians following his summer move from Tottenham Hotspur after Eric Choupo-Moting had broken the deadlock inside just four minutes.

Still, sides like Bochum will never budget for gaining points against Bayern - particularly away from home - with securing their third successive survival at this level all that matters to them.

As such, with Gladbach's form proving to be highly disappointing so far this season, Die Unabsteigbaren will be targeting all three points on Saturday at Vonovia-Ruhrstadion, where they have generally been very impressive since Thomas Letsch's managerial appointment last year.

After registering 10 successive top half finishes in the Bundesliga, including qualifying for the Champions League on four separate occasions, Gladbach have since ended up in the bottom half in their last two campaigns.

Despite replacing Daniel Farke with former Bayer Leverkusen boss Gerardo Seoane in their managerial dugout during the summer, Die Fohlen's form is yet to improve, with two wins and three draws from their opening five fixtures only marginally keeping them outside of the relegation places.

During a tight encounter against RB Leipzig at Borussia-Park on Saturday, substitute Timo Werner's 75th-minute strike proved to be the difference between the two sides, making it three defeats from three home games for Gladbach this season.

After coming from behind on both occasions to claim two points against Augsburg and SV Darmstadt 98 in crazy 4-4 and 3-3 draws respectively, Seoane's side may bizarrely feel more confident on the road at this stage of their development under the Swiss' tutelage, and they will be desperate to end their winless streak in North Rhine-Westphalia this weekend.

VfL Bochum Bundesliga form:

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VfL Bochum form (all competitions):

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Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form:

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Borussia Monchengladbach form (all competitions):

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Team News

Bochum will remain without Keven Schlotterbeck, Moritz-Broni Kwarteng, Michael Esser and Lys Mousset due to injury, while Mats Pannewig, Jordi Osei-Tutu and Luis Hartwig will be assessed ahead of kick-off.

Letsch may feel obliged to make a few changes after suffering a 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Bayern last time out, with the likes of Christian Gamboa, Patrick Osterhage and Philipp Hofmann pushing for starting berths.

Gladbach, meanwhile, will travel without Jonas Omlin and Tomas Cvancara due to injury, but otherwise Seoane appears to have a clean bill of health at his disposal.

Florian Neuhaus, Christoph Kramer and Alassane Plea were all only used from the bench during their side's defeat to Leipzig and will certainly be pushing hard for recalls from the outset.

VfL Bochum possible starting lineup:

Riemann; Masovic, Ordets, Soares; Gamboa, Losilla, Osterhage, Stoger, Bernardo; Asano, Antwi-Adjei

Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:

Nicolas; Elvedi, Itakura, Wober; Scally, Kramer, Weigl, Kone, Netz; Plea, Siebatcheu

We say: VfL Bochum 1-1 Borussia Monchengladbach

Neither team has started the season as well as they would have hoped so far, particularly the visitors, whose decline across the last couple of years appears set to reach new lows if they are not careful.

Bochum are generally very difficult to beat on their home turf under Letsch, and we can envisage the two sides' winless runs both continuing for another weekend at least, with a draw the most likely outcome between two relatviely evenly-matched sides.

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