Schalke head to the Mercedes-Benz Arena on Saturday afternoon, with both sides aiming to build upon convincing wins last weekend.

“When you look at everything that’s been going on at Stuttgart over the past few days, even as an outsider, you realise that Huub has got everything under control there,” explained Heldt. “Their victory in Freiburg immediately allowed Huub to make a statement with his team.” 

“We’ve made it hard for ourselves away from home so far this season,” said Roberto Di Matteo, who is desperate to pick up away points for the first time since he took over in Gelsenkirchen. “We want to pick up points in Stuttgart and hope to begin to show some consistency. We want to pick up a good result and we are working hard to make sure that happens.” The consistency is key for both sides, with the Royal Blues winning four and losing two of their last six Bundesliga games.

It's been an interesting start to the Italian's time in Gelsenkirchen, with some impressive wins and heavy defeats coming in equal measure. It's been away from home where they've struggled, with di Matteo's use of a 3-5-2 formation seemingly stemming the flow of loses. Along with that 4-1 win at home to Mainz, that was proceeded by an extremely important win over fellow Champions League challengers Wolfsburg. That leaves them just three points behind Bayer Leverkusen in third and with a crucial European tie with Maribor in mid-week, so a win in Swabia could prove a catalyst for a strong end to their Hinrunde campaign.

“In terms of the other players who are suffering with injury, there will be no further returns.” Jefferson Farfán, Sead Kolasinac, Fabian Giefer, Julian Draxler, Leon Goretzka, Chinedu Obasi, Joel Matip, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Sidney Sam and Marco Höger are all out for di Matteo's men, with injuries playing a sizeable role in the up-and-down start to the season. We have a few options. In training we tried a few new things; we now need to work out what will work best in the game. I haven’t decided anything for certain yet," commented the Italian coach, who was victorious over Stuttgart in the 1998 European Cup Winners' Cup with Chelsea.

Huub Stevens, who was voted Schalke’s “Coach of the Century”, spent 239 Bundesliga games in the Royal Blues’ dugout. He will welcome his former-club to the Mercedez-Benz Arena, but there'll be no spilt loyalties on Saturday. Stevens won his first game in charge, away at Freiburg, in which Timo Werner opened the scoring. The promising teen was seemingly frozen out by Armin Veh and is wary of their opponents this weekend, "Schalke will be a very different game to the clash in Freiburg. With our system of playing, we can wait for the opportunity to hit on the break in our own stadium, close down the spaces and force our opponents into making errors." He commented, "We’ve also had some more time to rehearse the plans. That considered, I think we have a good chance – as was the case last year under Huub Stevens."

"As an outsider, you get the feeling that Schalke are lacking consistency, but there is no doubting the high quality of the team. If we work well as a team and we all pull together, then we can beat Schalke."

Vedad Ibisevic, Mohammed Abdellaoue and Georg Niedermeier are out of the game, with a possible chance for Timo Werner to start up-front at long last. Though a decision will be made to whether Daniel Didavi will be fit on Friday's final training session, with Daniel Schwaab and Oriol Romeu also returning from suspension. Youngster Timo Baumgartl should retain a starting place, after a very impressive display against Freiburg. Stuttgart moved off the bottom of the table with that win and with so many crucial players missing for the Gelsenkirchen side, they'll see this as a big chance to pick up some more vital points.

Predicted XI's:

Stuttgart XI: Ulreich; Klein, Rüdiger, Baumgartl, Hlousek; Leitner, Greuzo; Sararer, Gentner, Werner; Harnik. (4-2-3-1)

Schalke XI: Fährmann; Höwedes, Kirchhoff, Neustädter; Uchida, Aogo, Barnetta, Fuchs; Meyer; Huntelaar, Choupo-Moting. (3-5-2)

Quotes via Schalke and Stuttgart's official website.