World News – GB – Preview: Leipzig vs Schalke – Predictions, team news, line-ups

RB Leipzig have started the season well and sit fourth at the new Bundesliga table after two games, and welcome struggling Schalke on Saturday

Schalke has had a tough start to the campaign and is bottom of the goal difference table, having lost his first two matches, and won’t be looking forward to making it to Leipzig

Leipzig have finished second or third in three of their last four Bundesliga seasons – finishing sixth last year – and once again look like one of the best teams in the division

They boasted of the league’s second-best defense last season and scored an impressive 81 goals in 34 games, but were held up by failing to convert draws to wins

Leipzig lost just four league games last season – the same number as eventual champions Bayern Munich – but their 12 draws were the highest total in the Bundesliga

They were held back in their last outing by Bayer Leverkusen, and exciting young coach Julian Nagelsmann knows his side have to be more ruthless and turn a point into three more regularly if they are to truly fight for the champion title

Schalke has much more serious issues, however.They last won a Bundesliga match in January and are on an 18-game winless streak in the competition

Head coach David Wagner was dismissed after their last game – a 3-1 home loss to a Werder Bremen side who barely avoided relegation last season and were missing Milot Rashica – and has appointed former Augsburg coach Manuel Baum to replace him

Baum’s unenviable job opening game is a tough test, and the new boss may be looking to simply limit the damage and avoid a repeat of the 8-0 Bayern Munich pounding Schalke suffered on the day of the match. ‘opening

The club’s next league exit against the newly promoted Union Berlin at home may prove to be a more realistic goal to end their winless streak

Leipzig boss Nagelsmann has a fairly long list of absentees ahead of Schalke’s visit, including a number of key players

Yussuf Poulsen was withdrawn in the first half against Leverkusen and joins Marcel Sabitzer, Ibrahima Konate and Konrad Laimer on the treatment table

Fabrice Hartmann is also injured at the ACL and will not be back this calendar year

Leipzig should comfortably win, but could be denied a big score due to the absence of their regular striker and the fact that Schalke’s new boss Baum could ask his team to sit still and play for a point

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