Football Season Guide

Sandhausen continue to be the team with the smallest budget in Bundesliga 2, at the moment of writing delayed tax payments threaten to see the team deducted up to six points from their tally, but for several years White and Blacks have been defying the odds and finding ways to win narrowly and remain in the division. Coach Kocak was praised for the way his team played last term, Sandhausen spent more than half of the campaign in the top eight, and the most pleasing news from this summer was that he refused offers from as many as four bigger clubs to stay put for one more season. There was serious activity in terms of players coming and leaving though. Sandhausen parted ways with 12 members of their squad, while 11 new faces arrived. Especially in attack things changed a lot and all three of the centre forwards are new. It is worrying that none of Guede, Schleusener or Behrens has seen much regular first-team football in recent years and it is yet to be revealed if they will be able to provide the goods when it matters. The gaffer kept Gislason though, with the Icelander becoming key man since joining in January. The other hope for solid attacking returns is that Wooten will be able to rediscover his form from 2 years ago after missing the entire previous campaign due to an injury picked up in the season-opener. The gaffer added two new centre-backs to a squad that already had four inner defenders and after mixing his formation a lot last season now it seems that Kocak is set on playing with three at the back. Most of the inner midfielders are also defensive-minded players and this hints that Sandhausen’s attacks will be focused down the wide areas where some quick and explosive squad members will be fiercely competing for starting roles.