Great day for a brace – TSG beat Mainz

Tactics and personnel 

Julian Nagelsmann made just one chance to his starting XI from last weekend’s draw in Berlin. Kerem Demirbay sustained a heavy ankle injury fifteen minutes to the game against Hertha and was replaced in today by Nadiem Amiri. He was joined by Oliver Baumann, Florian Grillitsch, Nico Schulz, Benjamin Hübner, Kevin Vogt, Kevin Akpoguma, Andrej Kramaric, Adam Szalai, Serge Gnabry and Dennis Geiger

TSG started with a 3-5-2 formation with captain Vogt, Hübner and Akpoguma forming the back three in front of Baumann, Schulz and Gnabry occupying the wings either side of Geiger, Amiri and Grillitsch in the centre. Kramaric and Szalai started as the front two. Quarter of an hour into the game, Nagelsmann called Grillitsch over to issue some in-game instructions – Grillitsch dropped into holding midfield and Geiger pushed forward.

The boss made his first substitution after 64 minutes – Nadiem Amiri made way for Mark Uth. TSG’s top scorer for the season joined Szalai up front and Kramaric moved into his more familiar ‘number 10’ position. Just four minutes later, as soon as TSG took the lead, Nagelsmann made his next change, swapping Nico Schulz for Pavel Kaderabek on the right wing. In the 83rd minute, the final TSG change saw Ermin Bicakcic come on to support the defence, replacing the tireless Serge Gnabry. 

Match facts and statistics »