Football Season Guide

St.Pauli were one of the favourites to go back down after promotion to the top flight, but proved their doubters wrong with a solid season under coach Alexander Blessin. Although the Kiezkicker did flirt with relegation for most of the season, a robust approach made them difficult to beat, and just 3 losses from their last 10 matches saw them to safety. Blessin was always under pressure to succeed after influential boss Hurzeler left for Brighton, but so far he has done an excellent job. The next test will be to make St.Pauli an established Bundesliga club and slowly move them up the table. The biggest problem last season was scoring goals, St.Pauli netted just 28 times in 34 matches, which was by far the lowest in the division. The club have moved to address this with strikers Andreas Hountondji and Ricky-jade Jones joining in the summer. Both certainly have potential to hurt defences, but whether it will be enough, remains to be seen, especially after the loss of lively front-man Guilavogui to Lens. On the flip side, Blessin has put together a mean defence which conceded just 41 times last season, only champions Bayern conceded less. The loss of Philipp Treu at left-back has been rectified with the purchase of Louis Oppie, a standout performer for Arminia Bielefeld last season. Strength in depth has also been increased through central defender Jannik Robatsch and right-back Arkadiusz Pyrka, so expect them to be tough to break down again. St.Pauli have also completed the signing of midfielder Joel Chima Fujita for a club-record fee and that should help to make them more competitive. The Japanese star is good on the ball and should bring plenty of energy to the middle of the park.