Rose explains Vandevoort start, praises Schlager, and looks ahead to Bayern | OneFootball

Left for dead after a disastrous 2024/25 Champions' League campaign and a league slump that recently saw them dismantled by Wolfsburg on match-day 12, Marco Rose's German Red Bulls suddenly have a new lease-on-life. Sunday's victory over Frankfurt in the Round 14 Bundesliga capper gave RB two league wins on-the-spin. Rose's Saxons - having also defeated Frankfurt in the cup - maintain hopes of capturing their third DFB Pokal in the last four years.

Leipzig have the shortest training week of all top-flight clubs this week as they must go from contesting the Round 14 capper to playing league-leaders Bayern in Friday's Round 15 curtain-raiser. The German record champs slipped up against Mainz over the weekend, leaving plenty of teams the chance to catch up in the title race. With a win, Leipzig could pull within three points of Kompany's FCB.

"I can only pay tribute to those who played and gave it their all," Rose noted in his post-match comments last night, "We've shown things that we've been missing in recent weeks. I believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel and things are now sustainable."

Leipzig were buoyed by the return of midfielder Xaver Schlager to the starting XI. The 27-year-old Austrian international returned from injury to make his first start of the season. For his part, the midfield linchpin declared himself "very happy to be back on the pitch with the boys." Fellow starter Christoph Baumgartner went a step further.

"I'm a different player when he's on the pitch," Baumgartner, who assisted on two goals in last night's win, "He's an incredibly important player for us because he knows how to make the most of the spaces I'm in."

Rose's crew can indeed look to the coming meeting with Bayern with optimism. In addition to Schlager, long-term injured defenders David Raum and El-Chadaille Bitshiabu logged minutes off the bench. Interestingly enough, back-up keeper Maarten Vandevoort also earned his first league start.

Rose gave every indication that Vandevoort's start was an aberration. Skipper Peter Bulacsi should be back in goal against Bayern on Friday. On the question as to whether Schlager would again feature in the lineupp, Rose's attempts to keep it vague didn't exactly sound very convincing.

"The decision [to start Vandevoort] was made after the cup win," Rose said of his net-minding situation, "Pete [Gulacsi] has opted out of national team duty and needs a break sometimes. He [Vandevoort] is our future. It was a good opportunity to give him some playing time."

“Xaver sets the pace for us and influences our tempo," Rose said of Schalger, "He makes a lot of good decisions, is a very strategic player and an aggressive leader. He played five more minutes [65] than we thought he was ready for. We have to see what the smart move for Friday is."