Football Season Guide

Last season almost ended in relegation for them. If Austria Klagenfurt hadn't been quite so unexpectedly awful, they'd have probably gone down. Mentally weak, ineffectual in the final third - really poor. Improvements are mandatory or a place in the division below awaits. Their pre-season transfer recruits left a lot to be desired. They've added a new goalkeeper as competition for Stojanovic - one of the lesser problems that they had, so a curious one to attempt to 'solve', although admittedly he can be a little injury-prone at times. They also added another option in midfield in Greil. They have more CMs than anything else in their squad but they're still not 100% happy, which means they invest a lot of time in strengthening an area of their team which only needs a little improvement. The big problem for them is in attack. They aren't good enough there. The Lincoln experiment failed; he's back in Brazil on loan, and will most likely stay there. The Fridrikas experiment has failed. Dietz and Mustapha did quite well but both have left. Gustavo Santos moved on midway through last season. They're going to have to hope and pray that returning loanee Fetahu has the solution (spoiler alert: he doesn't). A lack of firepower is what is almost certainly going to see them sucked into the relegation battle again this season. They lost creator Kameri too; his loan expired. They're hoping that Massombo will breathe life into their midfield, and he probably will - just not in terms of the quality final ball that they need. Again, goal-scoring and chance creation will be a big problem for this group of players. Their defence is solid enough for now, especially as Estrada and Koller are yet to depart, although the lack of a backup for Ingolitsch is concerning. It's hard to be optimistic about the campaign ahead for them though. They needed to do much more than they ultimately did in the transfer market, and it's going to hurt them.