Football Season Guide

Austria are coming from a season that has left their fans with mixed feelings, as the Violets have managed to achieve the pre-season goals but will feel that they could have achieved so much more, having led the league midway through the season. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why the Violets collapsed so badly in the second half of the season, but they were quickly leapfrogged by Salzburg and never looked like getting back into the title race after that, with the Red Bulls also beating them in the semi-finals of the Austrian Cup to deny them a chance at silverware. However, there is little doubt that Austria seem to be on an upward trend under Thorsten Fink - the 2015/16 season was certainly better than their previous one, with the Violets looking more tactically mature and their arguably biggest downfall being their lack of a reliable striker, with Kayode blowing hot and hold during the majority of the season and Kevin Friesenbichler not establishing himself as anything more than an impact player. They have failed to sign a new striker and their fans have reasons to be worried going into the new season, as the Violets have lost their last season's top scorer Alex Gorgon, who has refused to extend his contract and is set to continue his career abroad. The other notable departed player is central defender Vance Sikov, but Austria have signed a promising replacement in Ried's Petar Filipovic. The other notable new face in the squad is former Salzburg man Felipe Pires, who signs on loan from Hoffenheim and will be hoping to become a regular in the role vacated by Gorgon. All in all, Austria's squad seems to be of similar quality, or slightly weaker, than the one they had last season. Fink will certainly be hoping for one or both of his strikers to step up and find some consistency as, if that does not happen, the Violets could struggle to even repeat their last season's finish.