Monchengladbach v Hamburg

There could be plenty of goals in the final game of 2010 for these two teams before they go into winter break. Games involving Monchengladbach average 4.37 goals while games involving Hamburg seem miserly in comparison at 3.24. Could be a good opportunity to catch Papa Grande?

I've used bundesliga.de heavily for this match as it has a decent amount of stats to swim through. Using their predicted lineups I've crunched through the 'minutes played' and 'touches' to get an average minutes per touch (the lower the number the better) that should give us a rough and ready indication of who the main players will be in each team.

Monchengladbach

Neustadter (194 minutes played, 98 touches, 1.98 minutes per touch)
Daems (1440, 791, 1.82)
Wissing (95, 59, 1.61)
Bradley (1439, 887, 1.62)
Marx (1228, 707, 1.74)
Reus (1340, 717, 1.87)
Arango (869, 592, 1.47)

I couldn't get the stats out for the strikers or Schachen strangely but that list should get us started. Bradley usually plays in the centre of midfield (with Marx) and seems to see more of the ball than the others except for Arango and Wissing (who I'm discounting due to lack of minutes). Arango is comfortably ahead of the rest and that's from playing out on the left of midfield. He's also got 2 goals and 2 assists this season and averages 2 shots on target and 1 off per game. Despite the lack of touches Reus may be worth considering as he has 5 goals and 5 assists to his name. Mind you he also has 5 yellows so is a bit of a risk.

Hamburg

Rincon (745, 558, 1.34)
Besic (100, 55, 1.82)
Westermann (1440, 1226, 1.17)
Jarolim (984, 973, 1.01)
Trochowski (945, 908, 1.04)
Pitroipa (1252, 790, 1.58)
Torun (138, 68, 2.03)
Elia (440, 293, 1.50)
Guerrero (852, 572, 1.49)

Overall Hamburg seem to touch the ball a lot more than Monchengladbach do, which maybe reflects their league position. It seems to suggest picking 3 or more Hamburgers in your Big Game team is the way to go. Jarolim and Trochowski jump out of that list with almost a touch per minute. Not far behind is Westermann who is described on the site as 'every coach's dream' and 'unbelievably versatile' - it might be worth checking where he's playing tonight before picking him. Last time out he was at centre back. Outside of these three there's not much to get excited about. The predicted lineups don't include Petric and van Nistelrooy, the two top goalscorers. In fact the front three only have 3 goals between them all season. Rincon has a good average though. Note: I couldn't get stats for Prestel.

So, after all that, I'll be going for a conservative choice: Bradley, Arango, Jarolim, Trochowski and Westermann. Reus, Marx, Rincon and Guerrero would be my next choices though.

Good luck!

by BensBulls
(Ben Wraith)