Hoffenheim vs Mainz preview - Gisdol unfazed by new-look Mainz

Hoffenheim coach Markus Gisdol says he cannot give opponents Mainz too much consideration as he says an unknown quantity will be visiting the Rhein-Neckar Arena this weekend.

Mainz celebrated a winning start to life under their new coach Martin Schmidt last weekend, sweeping local rivals Eintracht Frankfurt to one side with a 3-1 win.

On Saturday, they play their first away game since parting company with Kasper Hjulmand and that is why Gisdol does not want to read too much into how they performed a week ago.

"Of course it's going to be a different Mainz team," he said. "The change in coach surprised me and I cannot really say much about their new coach Martin Schmidt.

"I don't know him so it's hard to analyse the football he has his team play.

"We have seen the Frankfurt game and we will try to draw some conclusions from it, but this is their first away game since changing coaches so there is a degree of uncertainty about the way they will play.

"For that reason, we've got to focus even more on our own game."

Hoffenheim's game has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks with a win and a draw in their last two games taking them to within three points of the top six.

"After an average start to the new year, the team have now got back on track," Gisdol said on his club's website.

"We've shown plenty of emotion and morale lately and those will be the cornerstones for our coming games."

Schmidt was not very revealing about what his plans are when he met the media before his first trip away from the Coface Arena.

He is heading into unknown territory as he continues to decipher the data from last weekend's local derby victory.

"My coaching team are showing very many different facets of that game to the players," he said. "We can learn a lot from it.

"We've been doing this since Saturday night, but all of the analysis only gets you anywhere if you then feed them into training."

Schmidt has been able to welcome Jonas Hofmann and Junior Diaz back into training this week and both could return this weekend with Julian Baumgartlinger set to be given a rest.