Mark Langdon's free weekend football tips and accumulators

Free football tips, bets and analysis for this weekend's games in the English Football League, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A.

Best bets

Oxford +0.25 on Asian handicap
1pt 19-20 RedZone
West Brom
1pt 21-20 Betfred, Betway, BoyleSports
Freiburg draw no bet
1pt Evsgeneral
Atalanta +0.25 on Asian handicap
1pt 19-20 bet365

Rotherham v Oxford

3pm Saturday

Oxford have been dishing out footballing lessons to opponents in recent weeks and they could ace their latest assignment at Rotherham in Sky Bet League One.

Fourteen goals have been scored by Oxford in their last four league matches and during that spell they also smashed four past a West Ham team who looked decent on paper in the EFL Cup.

Manager Karl Robinson is not to everyone's taste and the knives were out early doors after his side collected just five points from their first seven games. However, things have gone much smoother since then and scouts flocked to the Kassam to see Oxford ease past Doncaster 3-0 last Saturday.

It was one-way traffic as United landed nine shots on target to Rovers' none and Oxford achieved the victory without the ill Matty Taylor as James Henry once again starred.

The 3-0 success won't have come as a huge surprise to those who saw them beat Gillingham by the same scoreline on September 28, just seven days after Robinson's side went to Lincoln and won 6-0.

Rotherham should provide a stiff test of Oxford's promotion potential but an Asian handicap bet of +0.25 allows punters to profit even if the visitors extend their eight-match unbeaten run with a draw.

Much has been made locally of Rotherham's change of formation to a 4-4-1-1 which coincided with league wins over Coventry (4-0) and Blackpool (2-1) as Paul Warne steadied the ship following a dodgy return of just one victory (against Bolton) in seven.

However, Coventry produced an astonishing amount of mistakes to hand maximum points on a plate and Rotherham had keeper Daniel Iversen, on loan from Leicester, and the woodwork (twice) to thank for last week's 2-1 win at Blackpool.

Rotherham were second best on just about every key performance indicator at Bloomfield Road apart from the final score and this could be a much more difficult 90 minutes.

Middlesbrough v West Brom

3pm Saturday

Backers of both teams to score have been in clover following the Baggies this season and their lively attack should come up trumps at the Riverside as Leeds are the only Sky Bet Championship side to prevent them notching this term.

The fact that Slaven Bilic's boys have kept just the one clean sheet is potentially going to be a problem long-term but Middlesbrough don't offer a great deal in the final third – unlike free-scoring West Brom.

Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana are technically outstanding at Championship level, supplying the bullets for Charlie Austin, and Romaine Sawyers keeps everything ticking along in midfield.

All four scored against Cardiff last time out whereas Boro, who have lost three of their last four games, were extremely fortunate to escape Birmingham with just a 2-1 defeat on the balance of play.

Birmingham hit the woodwork four times and had 21 shots inside the box and if West Brom get anywhere near as many opportunities the pressure will only grow on novice Boro boss Jonathan Woodgate.

Union Berlin v Freiburg

2.30pm Saturday

Union Berlin have lost the expected-goals count in all seven of their Bundesliga battles this season and are obviously finding the step up to the top flight difficult.

The shock 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund feels like a lifetime ago given that Union have since lost four straight games and number five could be coming up against high-flying Freiburg, who sit fourth.

Christian Streich's side will no doubt drop down to a more natural level in time, yet for now they are enjoying the ride and have already triumphed at Paderborn, Hoffenheim and Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Euro Under-21 star Luca Waldschmidt continues to shine with four goals in seven league games and has since been promoted to the German senior national team.

Waldschmidt started Germany's qualifier in Estonia and Vincenzo Griffo has forced his way into the Italian team, so there clearly is quality to go with Freiburg's hard grafters.

Lazio v Atalanta

2pm Saturday

They have already dished out capital punishment once this season and Atalanta can return to the Stadio Olimpico to follow the 2-0 win over Roma by avoiding defeat at Lazio.

Atalanta are playing some wonderful football domestically – they are the highest-scoring side in Serie A with 18 goals – and their Champions League woes can be attributed to first-time nerves.

Luis Muriel is a lively replacement for the injured Duvan Zapata and Lazio look vulnerable favourites. Their three league wins have come against Parma (12th), Genoa (19th) and Sampdoria (20th).

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Real Madrid 8-15
For all of Real Madrid's problems they are top of La Liga and their away wins at Celta Vigo and Sevilla suggest they should be up to the task of overcoming Mallorca, who have lost five of their last seven.

Blowout
Grimsby 11-10
There can be no doubt that Grimsby are having a solid season but they could be facing Leyton Orient at the wrong time as Carl Fletcher has come in as manager and they have won their last two league games.

Accumulator
West Brom 21-20, Plymouth 31-40, Real Madrid 8-15, Sevilla
4-11. £1 accumulator returns £7.61 with Betway.

Both teams to score
Games at Bradford 10-13, Crewe 5-7, Real Sociedad 11-17. £1 treble returns £5 with RedZone.

Thought for the week

Daniel Stendel was sacked by Barnsley during the international break and a section of the Tykes' supporters, who have accepted the German as one of their own, staged an impromptu drinking session to say thanks for his Oakwell work.

Barnsley are 23rd in the Championship, but Stendel built a superb side by League One standards last season and was sold a dud in the summer as most of his best players departed the club.

Welsh international goalkeeper Adam Davies, centre-backs Liam Lindsay and Ethan Pinnock, and top scorer Kieffer Moore were among those to leave.

Under a 'moneyball'-type transfer model, Barnsley went young and mainly off the usual track in looking for cheap replacements and in time maybe that approach will be for the best of the club.

However, it certainly was not Stendel's fault that many of those signings have found the Championship too hot to handle and if you adopt this statistical-based approach there has to be realism mixed with patience.

Stendel can drink to the fact that he should be back in work soon enough and with Kenny Jackett under pressure Portsmouth could do a lot worse than appoint him.

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