Stuttgart's Champions League Glow Fades as Hoeneß's Rotation Backfires Against Gladbach
Six points from seven games
VfB Stuttgart's season is developing a split personality. Encouraging in Europe, brittle at home. Friday's 2-3 defeat to bottom-of-the-table Borussia Mönchengladbach was their fifth loss in seven Bundesliga fixtures of the 2026/27 campaign, leaving Sebastian Hoeneß's side on six domestic points — and, by the end of the weekend, potentially inside the relegation zone.
It is a startling position for a club that began its Champions League cycle with genuine promise, and one that raises awkward questions about squad rotation, defensive discipline and the depth available to a coach who has leaned heavily on his bench.
An XI reshaped by choice and necessity
Hoeneß made six changes to the team that delivered an encouraging Champions League performance in midweek. The one he had no say in was at right-back, where Lorenz Assignon deputised for the injured Josha Vagnoman — Stuttgart's leading Bundesliga scorer, ruled out of this fixture with a hamstring strain, as reported on 22 October. Nikolas Nartey was already unavailable.
The rest were judgement calls: Finn Jeltsch, Atakan Karazor, Leo Sauer, Ermedin Demirovic and Dzenan Pejcinovic came in for Jeff Chabot, Grischa Prömel, Bilal El Khannouss, Deniz Undav and Jamie Leweling. Sauer, a significant summer investment, made his starting debut. Demirovic wore the armband as a makeshift captain and, for a while, justified every bit of the faith.
Demirovic delivers — then doesn't
The new strike pairing of Pejcinovic and Demirovic, starting together for the first time since the defeat in Hoffenheim, produced a goal inside five minutes. The Germany U21 international laid it on; Demirovic volleyed it from 22 metres, and Moritz Nicolas in the Gladbach goal let the ball slip off his palms and in.
"Demirovic produced a tame effort in the 58th minute and shot wide in the 63rd," the evening's assessment read, and the contrast was stark. Stuttgart's captain for the night could not convert the far better chances his side created afterwards. He did atone in the 83rd minute, heading in to make it 3-2 — his second of the night and the 22nd league goal Gladbach have conceded this season — but by then the game had already slipped away.
His header set up a frantic finale and a stream of crosses into the box in stoppage time, none of which found a Stuttgart head. Bilal El Khannouss, on as a substitute, had the best of the late chances at 90+1 and found Nicolas equal to it.
Thirty minutes of control, then nothing
For half an hour Stuttgart were the better team. Pejcinovic shot on 14 minutes, Assignon on 16, Ramon Hendriks nearly converted a corner on 18. Demirovic and Pejcinovic combined for another decent opening ten minutes after the goal.
Then the game tilted. Shuto Machino and Fabio Chiarodia failed to test Dennis Seimen from promising positions, and on 38 minutes Joe Scally's backheel from Zento Uno's shot levelled the scores. Seimen, making his home debut, denied Florian Neuhaus with a full-stretch save at 45+4 but could do nothing about Wael Mohya striking the crossbar seconds later, with Uno turning the rebound wide. "The Swabians were extremely lucky the score still stood 1-1 at halftime."
Hoeneß's triple substitution on 55 minutes — Undav, El Khannouss and Leweling — was a reaction to falling 2-1 behind to Mohya's cutback for Machino, and it did not stem the tide. Mohya added the third on 66 after Seimen spilled his low shot and Scally won the scramble.
Ratings that tell the story
The published player ratings made uncomfortable reading for the hosts: Leo Sauer was handed a 3, Maximilian Mittelstädt and Atakan Karazor a 4 each, with Assignon and Finn Jeltsch on 5. Only Demirovic, Pejcinovic, Hendriks, Chris Führich and Seimen reached a 6.
A different kind of pressure
Gladbach arrived in Stuttgart on a run of six straight league defeats, with coach Alexander Blessin having named nine absentees in the build-up — a situation reported on 22 October and framed then as a fight against becoming the first Bundesliga side to lose its opening seven matches. They left with three points and that record still unclaimed.
Stuttgart's next assignment is a Pokal trip to Paderborn, a venue they have already visited this month. Then comes the league table again, and the awkward arithmetic of a Champions League campaign running alongside a domestic crisis.