Next Wednesday, 24th of September 2014, the former European champions Borussia Dortmund will entertain Stuttgart at the imponent Westfalenstadion for round five of the German Bundesliga, a match that the home side desperately needs to win in order to bring back the consistency that seems to be have abandoned them this season.

After giving Arsenal something to think about in the middle of week, Dortmund suffered yet another major stumble at Bundesliga as they were defeated by the surprising Mainz that are currently at the top of the table, together with the newcomers Paderborn and the old dogs Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim.

Dortmund had an apparent control of the match, with more ball possession, more goal attempts and more shots on goal, but all that supposed dominance wasn’t enough to provide them with the three points. The Japanese international forward Shinji Okazaki put Mainz on the lead on the 66th minute of the second-half but only four minutes later Ciro Immobile could have leveled the score for the visitors but he failed to convert his try from the 11 metres spot, something that could have changed the history of the match. As if things weren’t bad enough for Dortmund already, Ginter scored an own goal on the 74th minute, which definitely sentenced the match.

Jürgen Klopp still has plenty of work ahead of him if he wants Dortmund to fight for the Bundesliga title this season. The constant injuries on the team’s defensive sector could be the reason behind this tremendous inconsistency. Subotic and Hummels, who are by far the team’s most impressive centre backs, have been constantly injured and not even the fullbacks are safe from this injury fever.

Dortmund will have a good opportunity to put an abrupt end on this stubborn inconsistency when they meet Stuttgart next Wednesday, since their opponents are also very far from being at their best moment.

Moving on to Stuttgart, they are also not having the season start they were certainly expecting. Last weekend, Stuttgart were defeated at home by Hoffenheim on a match throughout which they were the best team but failed when it came to scoring goals. Die Roten had plenty of goal attempts but they never found a way of beating an inspired Oliver Baumann, who maintain his team’s net unsurmountable.

The last time both sides measured forces at Westfalenstadion was back in November, a match that Dortmund easily won by the convincing score of 6-1. Although Stuttgart have not been going through the best of times, it is not likely that Dortmund will be able to replicate last season’s deed. The home side is naturally favourite for the match, but they will need to work hard if they want to defeat a Stuttgart team that is carving for points.

Borussia Dortmund

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LWWWL

Stuttgart

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLLDL

Possible Line-ups

Borussia Dortmund (4-2-3-1) - Weidenfeller - Piszczek - Subotic - Sokratis - Erik Durm - Kehl - Jojic - Mkhitaryan - Kagawa- Aubameyang - Immobile

Stuttgart (4-2-3-1) - Ulreich - Klein - Schwaab - Rüdiger - Sakai - Gentner - Romeu - Leitner - Harnik - Didavi - Ibisevic

Prediction

Borussia Dortmund 2 Stuttgart 1