Football Season Guide

Hannover have been excellent recently and against all the odds have managed to reach European football in consecutive campaigns. They will now look to keep that record going but they will know that with bigger clubs strengthening they will have a hard task ahead of them this term to repeat the feat. The signings they have made do look canny though with Huszti in particular being an excellent addition to the midfield while the others - Saki, Felipe and Nikci - all have considerable potential despite costing less than their German equivalents. The previous squad has lost only Pogatetz from the first eleven but with this being to arch rivals Wolfsburg it is a bitter blow. The rest of last year's team is basically in place though with Zieler remaining between the posts behind a defence led by American Cherundolo. The midfield should continue to help out considerably with Pinto and Schmiedebach sitting deep which leaves the more attacking jobs to Rausch, Schlaudraff and Stindl but with Abdellaoue, Diouf and Ya Konan all retained, scoring goals does not look like being an immediate problem. Hannover are a good side and though a top seven spot is not guaranteed, they should not be too far away from hitting this target.