Football Season Guide

Köln managed to survive last season through playing what can only be described as quite ugly but effective football. But their second season since being promoted back to the top division could be much harder as the other sides in the league will know how they play. Peter Stöger will therefore be hoping to slight alter and progress their style of football this season to cope with that. The off season saw a couple of crucial players for the first team leave with both Kevin Wimmer and Anthony Ujah being poached by bigger sides. Their other outgoings are perhaps less important although club captain Miso Brecko did move on after struggling to get a game in the first team last year. The new club captain is Matthias Lehmann who played almost every game last term. The loss of Ujah could be significant as he was generally a reliable source of goals for the team and he has been replaced by Anthony Modeste from Hoffenheim who still has lots to prove in this league. Wimmer has effectively been replaced by Dominque Heintz who is another promising German centre back but he also has lots to prove having only played in the second division so far. Other youngsters to join the club are Frederik Sorensen from Juventus and Milos Jojic who never really lived up to his early promise at Dortmund. It will take an experienced coach like Stöger to try and bring those players up to speed as quickly as possible. When Köln played their best football last season it with fast wing play and getting balls into the box for the strikers to attack. The addition of Leonardo Bittencourt from Hannover suggests that they will pursue this way of playing but there are question marks around Bittencourt’s temperament as he saw red twice last season as a winger. The physicality that was part of their game last year will still be present in parts of the team such as in central midfield where Matthias Lehmann and Kevin Vogt dominate in front of their back four. Stöger will likely happily revert to their former style should they find themselves in trouble though but they at least know that it works. Therefore for Köln this season they will hope to improve on their league position from last year and stay clear of the relegation fight. But that is only if they hit form, the quality in the team is still lacking or unproven in some positions so they may end up having a similar season to last year.