Hoffenheim coach Markus Gisdol recognises the "unknown quantity" of this Mainz 05 side under the new management of Martin Schmidt, as they prepare to host them at the Rhein-Neckar Arena this weekend.

"This is their first away game since changing coaches so there is a degree of uncertainty"

- Markus Gisdol

Gisdol is wary of reading too much into Mainz's 3-1 over Eintracht Frankfurt, also admitting that he knows little about their new coach: "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." Instead, Gisdol placed the emphasis on his side focusing on their own game in order to be prepared for the unexpected: "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 have improved their own performances in recent weeks - a win and a draw in their last two Bundesliga games taking them within six points of the top four places. Gisdol has highlighted the importance of his players showing intensity. "We've shown plenty of emotion and morale lately and those will be the cornerstones for our coming games," he said. Three points against Mainz this weekend will be sure to do wonders for the team spirit.


"We can learn a lot from it"

- Martin Schmidt

Schmidt's start to his tenure at Mainz could not have got off to a much better start, with a sweeping 3-1 win over rivals Frankfurt - but the manager admits that things are only in the early stages of putting the analysis into practice. "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."

The win leaves Mainz 11th in the Bundesliga table, but Schmidt will remain wary of how tight things are towards the bottom of the league. Mainz are just three points adrift of the bottom three places and a vital three points away at Hoffenheim this Saturday would be a major boost for their hopes this season.