Football Season Guide

St. Pauli finished just outside the top three last year but were a long way behind Nürnberg who ended up losing in the playoff. Over the summer Ewald Lienen will have been trying to work out how he can close that gap this year but the squad has been weakened by a group of important players leaving. The attack has been especially weakened with the loss of Sebastian Meier, Marc Rzatkowski, John Verhoek and last season’s top scorer Lennart Thy. The responsibility of scoring has shifted to Aziz Bouhaddouz who has joined from Sandhausen where he was a prolific goalscorer but the club really need him to settle into the team quickly if they are to move forward. Marvin Ducksch has also joined after a moderately successful spell with Paderborn though he has yet to show why he was so highly rated a few years ago. The one area of the team which has barely changed is in defence and that will be the foundation on which the Buccaneers will base their campaign. Further defensive strength has been added through the signings of Christopher Avevor and Vegar Hedenstad but the strength and depth at the back could lead the team to playing much more defensive football than they did last year, which in itself is saying something as they played largely on the counter attack. After going closer than they have in years to being promoted last year the team is in real danger of slipping back into the midfield with a few very good teams aiming to replace them as contenders for promotion. The football at times last year was of a high quality but this year the fans of the cult football team are more likely to have a good time on the nearby Reeperbahn than in their Millerntor ground.