Football Season Guide

Mainz went into the last season aiming to challenge for a place in Europe but a poor campaign meant that they just about managed to stay out of the bottom three, thanks to a superior goal difference record compared to Wolfsburg. Mainz were poor throughout the season while early exits from both the Europa League and the DFB Cup underlined a dismal campaign. The club reacted by relieving Martin Schmidt of his job at the end of the campaign and Sandro Schwarz has since taken over, leading Mainz to a couple of encouraging results in the pre-season. The Mainz coach though does have a couple of big problems to fix ahead of the new season after the club sold first choice striker Jhon Cordoba to Koln while Bojan and Florian Niederlechner have also left the club in the summer. Scoring goals was a major problem for Mainz, with Yunus Malli being the top scorer with just six goals despite leaving the club in January and, while they have brought in Kenan Kodro to boost the options up front, the striker did not really impress at Osasuna where he struggled to hold on to a regular starting spot. Yoshinori Muto is expected to lead the attack though and Mainz will be hoping that the arrival of Alexandru Maxim will help provide better service to the striker. Viktor Fischer and Abdou Diallo have also been signed while Rene Adler will be taking over as the first choice keeper, with Jonas Lossl sent out on loan to Huddersfield despite a decent first season at the club. Mainz have once again looked inwards for a replacement coach and the club will be hoping that Schwartz will prove as successful as some of his predecessors in ensuring a good campaign in the upcoming season.