Martin Schmidt continued his impressive work at Mainz by helping them secure a Europa League spot as they finished sixth in the Bundesliga table. After having resurrected Mainz's season following his appointment as Kasper Hjulmand in the closing stages of last season, Schmidt was hoping to build on the good finish in his first full campaign in charge of the club. Despite losing a couple of key players in Johannes Geis and Shinji Okazaki in the summer, Schmidt had managed to hold on to the core of the side that had helped Mainz finish in a respectable position in the previous campaign and made a few key additions in Yoshinori Muto, Danny Latza and Fabian Frei while Jhon Cordoba also arrived in a loan deal. The start did not go according to plan as Mainz suffered a shock defeat to Bundesliga debutants Ingolstadt while a poor return of six defeats from their first 10 games saw them drop into the bottom half of the league table. Mainz took their time to settle down but were able to find some consistency as the winter break neared and they managed to put up a six-match unbeaten run just before the break that saw them get back into the European qualification race. Despite suffering another defeat to Ingolstadt in the first match of 2016, the second half of the season proved to be even better for Mainz as they continued to rack up impressive results, including excellent victories against Wolfsburg, Schalke and Borussia Monchengladbach, and with teams above them struggling for consistency, Mainz emerged as a surprise challengers for a place in the top four. While new signings Muto, Cordoba and Christian Clemens all impressed in bursts, it was the creative presence of Yunus Malli that was key to Mainz's improvement as the season wore on. The midfielder ended the season as the top scorer with 11 goals and also chipped in with four assists and his excellent form has caught the eye of a number of big teams including Borussia Dortmund. Both Malli and Mainz's form though tapered off in the final weeks of the season and a poor return of just two wins from final 10 games coupled with both Bayer Leverkusen and Gladbach rediscovering their best form meant that Mainz were not able to sustain a top four challenge and had to settle for a Europa League spot instead. Despite the dip in form at the end, Schmidt will be very pleased with how the season unfolded and will be looking forward to make a better impact in Europe compared to Mainz's last appearance in the competition. Cordoba and Clemens have both had their loan moves turning into a permanent transfer but Schmidt has another summer of rebuilding on his hands following Loris Karius and Julian Baumgartlinger's departures while speculation continues on Malli's future at the club.
