Schieber no certainty for Stuttgart clash

Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp says Julian Schieber will only meet former team Stuttgart if he’s fit and can help the side to victory.

Klopp has had bad experiences choosing players to play against their old clubs and he will not pick Schieber on sentiment alone.

“Julian is very close to being in the starting line-up. He’s coming on very often in the last few matches. Nevertheless I’m not a young coach any more. In the beginning I’ve been romantic enough to try to field players against their ex-club. But I’ve had some negative experiences with that because the pressure on these guys seems to be too high in these special matches for them,” Klopp said.

“So if Julian plays against Stuttgart, it will be because we expect something from that. But we don’t do that because he will meet some of his buddies on the pitch.”

Klopp has been encouraged by his squad’s development in recent outings, including this week’s 4-1 German Cup win over Aalen and is tipping a hard-fought encounter Stuttgart.

“Stuttgart simply is a good football team. You have to expect that. But apart from what they’ve done in the Bundesliga in the last few matches, they’ve not played against us yet. And we are up to scratch now,” he said.

“I think we seem to be very solid. We also found our formation and have been able to welcome back our injured players. That’s why it will be a very exciting match.”