Football Season Guide

Bayer Leverkusen will be heading into the new campaign with the lowest expectations in recent times as they seek to recover from what was their worst season in 15 years after finishing just above the relegation zone. It was a dismal performance overall for Bayer as they desperately looked to pull clear of a relegation battle and, though they switched coaches midway through the season, with Tayfun Korkut taking over from Roger Schmidt, they finished the campaign just four points above the relegation zone. Korkut was sacked at the end of the season and Heiko Herrlich was appointed as his replacement. While Herrlich has led Jahn Regensburg to back-to-back promotions from the fourth division of German football to 2.Bundesliga, his only experience of managing in the top flight came with Bochum back in 2010, with the campaign ending in relegation. Herrlich will be hoping for a vastly improved outcome this time around but will be heading into the new season after seeing the spine of the team leave during the transfer window. Hakan Calhanoglu completed his move to AC Milan while Javier Hernandez had been their top scorer in the two seasons he was at the club but has since been sold to West Ham United. First choice defender Omer Toprak has also moved on along with Kyriakos Papadopoulos, leaving the central defence a bit light. Bayer have tried to address the problem by bringing in Sven Bender but with Tin Jedvaj, Jonathan Tah and Aleksandar Dragovic all failing to impress last season, it is one of the two biggest weakness for Bayer heading into the new campaign. Hernandez's departure also leaves a major hole in the attack with Stefan Kießling seeing his goal scoring prowess fade away in the last couple of campaigns while Admir Mehmedi and Kevin Volland play more of a supporting role rather than leading the attack. With just one major arrival in the transfer window, Dominik Kohr is only expected to provide cover to an already decent central midfield, European qualification looks an unlikely prospect and they would do well to finish in the top half