Football Season Guide

Hoffenheim

In


Mijat Gacinovic (mid) Eintracht Frankfurt; Bruno Nazario (mid) Botafogo – end of loan; Klauss (att) LASK - end of loan; Kasim Adams (def) Fortuna Dusseldorf - end of loan; Kevin Vogt (def) Werder Bremen – end of loan; Joshua Brenet (def) Vitesse - end of loan; Felipe Pires (mid) HNK Rijeka - end of loan;

Out


Leonardo Bittencourt (mid) Werder Bremen; Gregor Kobel (gk) Stuttgart; Stephen Zuber (sp) (mid) Eintracht Frankfurt; Michael Esser (gk) Hannover; Lucas Ribeiro (sp) (def) Internacional - on loan; Sebastian Rudy (r) (mid) FC Schalke - end of loan;

Last season turned out to be a decent one for Hoffenheim as they qualified for European football. It wasn’t to be without it’s highs and lows though, a great winning run which included victory over Bayern Munich was quickly followed by poor results, injuries and eventually the dismissal of coach Alfred Schreuder. The Kraichgauer recovered well under the guidance of assistant Matthias Kaltenbach, winning four of their last five games to secure sixth place. Hoffenheim appointed Sebastian Hoeneß as their new coach in August. A young manager, Hoeneß, had previously managed the Bayern Munich reserves and youth team and will be hoping his first venture into top level management will be a successful one. It looks as though Hoeneß will focus his attention on bringing youngsters up through the ranks as transfer activity has been scarce, only attacking midfielder Mijat Gacinovic from Eintracht Frankfurt has arrived so far. Hoffenheim were strong going forward last season and will be hoping for more of the same this time out. They will be boosted by the return of Sargis Adamyan, who up until his injury in early February looked promising, keeping hold of key men Christoph Baumgartner and Andrej Kramaric is also a big plus. One area of concern will be defensively where last term they conceded 53 goals, strengthening in that area might have to be done before the transfer window shuts.

Target


Europe- Due to the lack of transfer activity, It’s hard to see Hoffenheim build on their sixth place finish from last season, however, with a young and hungry manager at the helm, anything is possible.