St. Pauli showed just what is possible when a club shows faith in their manager as they survived the worst opening round of the pack to finish narrowly outside the top six. Ewald Lienen was many people’s favourite to get sacked early on in the season as the Hamburg side struggled to collect points. Their only two wins in the opening round of matches came in the fourth and sixteenth round with the gap in-between a very lean period. But while other sides sacked their coaches, Pauli stuck by veteran Lienen and in the second half of the season results changed completely – Pauli were the third best side in the league after Christmas. A particular highlight was the five match winning streak near the end of the season which propelled the side out of the relegation zone and into the top half of the table. Following the end of the season Lienen will move into an executive position allowing his former assistant to take the reins of the club, but his efforts this season were impressive.
After making such a poor start to the season, few Pauli players came away with much credit. In the second half of the season a few loan signings helped to reinvigorate the squad and Mats Möller Daehli was especially impressive. The defence was also hugely consistent after Christmas when they had the best defensive record of any side. But the player who really made the biggest difference this season was striker Aziz Bouhaddouz who scored 10 goals in the second half of the campaign. That included a hat trick in a high pressure game against Karlsruher SC in late February. Holding on to him will be a big part of how successful the club will be next season. Further reinforcements will also be needed to make sure the club do not repeat the same mistakes as this past season.
