VfL Wolfsburg heads to SC Freiburg on Wednesday evening for the second round of the DFB-Pokal, with kickoff set for 18:00 and Tobias Strobl facing a quick decision on both his lineup and his matchday squad. The Wolfsburg coach wants his team to reach the next round, but only 18 field players can be named, which means five of the 23 available outfield players will be left out.
That is why the search around Freiburg Vs Wolfsburg is not just about a cup tie. It is about how Strobl balances a knockout match against a team sitting third in the Bundesliga with the need to keep one eye on Saturday, when VfL Wolfsburg plays VfL Osnabrück. Strobl has already said any rotation should not be viewed as resting players for that league match.
Vinicius Souza is fit again and available, while Fraser Hornby remains unavailable and Mattias Svanberg is out for an indefinite period. That leaves Strobl with a bigger pool than in recent weeks, but not a full one, and the arithmetic is unforgiving: with 23 available field players and only 18 places in the squad, five professionals have to stay behind. He also has to decide whether to change the team that drew 1:1 with VfL Bochum before this match.
The awkward part is that the cup and the league do not wait for one another. Freiburg is the favorite, Wolfsburg needs a sharper performance than it produced in that draw, and Saturday’s match is already coming into view. Strobl can rotate, but he cannot treat Wednesday as a holding pattern, because the next round of the DFB-Pokal depends on what he leaves in and what he leaves out now.
That makes the squad announcement the key detail to watch before kickoff: which five players miss out, and whether Strobl trusts the same core or spreads the load across a different starting XI. The answer will show whether Wolfsburg is chasing a cup upset first and managing the calendar second, or whether it can do both at once.
