Football Season Guide

Wolfsburg

In


Jakub Kaminski (mid) Lech Poznan; Mattias Svanberg (mid) Bologna; Bartol Franjic (mid) Dinamo Zagreb; Patrick Wimmer (mid) Arminia Bielefeld; Killian Fischer (def) FC Nurnberg; Dzenan Pejcinovic (att) FC Augsburg U19’s; Josip Brekalo (mid) Torino - end of loan; Marin Pongracic (def) Borussia Dortmund - end of loan; Omar Marmoush (att) VFB Stuttgart - end of loan; Joshua Guilavogui (mid) FC Bordeaux - end of loan; Lino Kasten (gk) SKN St. Polten - end of loan;

Out


Elvis Rexhbecaj (mid) FC Augsburg; Kevin Mbabu (r) (def) Fulham; Xaver Schlager (k) (mid) RB Leipzig; Anselmo Garcia MacNulty (def) NAC Breda - on loan; Fabio Di Michele Sanchez (def) NAC Breda - on loan; Yun-sang hong (mid) FC Nurnberg II; John Brooks (r) (def) released; William (def) released; Dodi Lukebakio (sp) (att) Hertha BSC - end of loan;

Last season started with a lot of promise for Wolfsburg but turned out to be a real disappointment. The club sacked coach Van Bommel after a series of bad results and his replacement Florian Kohfeldt didn’t fare much better, they eventually finished 12th and crashed out of Europe and the DFB Pokal early on. Kohfeldt was unsurprisingly moved on and replaced by Nico Kovac. The Croatian has an impressive CV, with previously successful spells at Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich, as well as coaching the Croatian national team between 2013 and 2015. Kovac has got to work building his squad during the summer with the club spending over 30 million on recruits. Going forward, Wolfsburg looks like they could cause problems, the signings of wingers Patrick Wimmer and Jakub Kaminski will add pace to the flanks and should provide assists for trio Jonas Wind, Lucas Nmecha, and Max Kruse. Xaver Schlager moving to Leipzig is a blow but the purchases of Mattias Svanberg and Bartol Franjic should help to compensate, in the midfield, they should be ok especially with Max Arnold and Aster Vranckx already a decent pairing. The defence was shaky in the last campaign and could be an area of weakness again. John Brooks has left so Lacroix and Bornauw will need to improve after some poor performances last season, van de Ven has so far been untested but could also help out. The full-back positions are set with Killian Fischer a good backup to Baku at right-back.

Target


Top four - Wolfsburg will be looking to break into the Champions League spots again after a shrewd managerial appointment. They have also made some good signings in the transfer market so expect them to be a lot more competitive this season.