Veh demands improvement

Winning is the only option for Stuttgart when they face Swabian rivals Augsburg this Sunday.

Armin Veh's men dropped to the foot of the table prior to the international break and the head coach admits it has been a difficult fortnight.

"You don't really sleep very well when you are bottom of the league," Veh said at a press conference.

"It's not a nice situation to be in, but when you are at the bottom after 11 games of the season, then you know that something is wrong."

Veh is hopeful that realisation will also have sunk in among his players, saying he has not seen them playing "like a team who are bottom of the table must do" in recent encounters.

To complicate matters, they are up against opponents Veh believes are even stronger than their current league position suggests.

Augsburg are currently seventh with 15 points having won five and lost six so far this season.

"But most of those defeats were either only very tight or very unfortunate," Veh said. "I'm sure they are going to be brimming with confidence."

Veh is able to welcome Daniel Ginczek into his squad for the first time this season, giving him another option up front, while Daniel Schwaab is also available.

Defender Georg Niedermeier, on the other hand, is ruled out with a bruised thigh.

Although Augsburg are currently knocking on the door for a place in Europe next season, their coach Markus Weinzierl insists they are still only focusing on avoiding relegation.

"We've got six games between now and the winter break to get as many points as we can to reach our goal of avoiding relegation," he said.

"We definitely want points from this game to enable us to maintain the gap we've got over Stuttgart."

He too says his opponents' league position is misleading.

"They have a lot of quality in their squad and they are dangerous," he said. "It's only momentary (that they are bottom)."

Weinzierl has just one doubt over Dominik Kohr, who has a cold and was unable to train on Thursday.