Football Season Guide

Somewhat expectedly, the smallest team in the Bundesliga last season got relegated, with Paderborn never really standing realistic chance of survival after getting adrift from the rest very early on. Shambolic defending was the main reason for the struggles in 2019/20. Despite the relegation, much-loved coach Steffen Baumgart remains in charge and he will be now in his fourth year at the helm. In terms of transfer activity so far 4 of the regulars from last term have departed, but decent replacements signed already (Correia, Okoroji, Fuhrich and Thalhammer). As result Paderborn have impressive core of 14-15 field players. However, the depth is not good enough and more players need to be added to address that. Baumgart preaches open and expansive football and Paderborn should be very entertaining to watch once more. Usually the full-backs are given freedom to bomb forward at every opportunity and this should remain part of the game plan. The team’s main strength must be their attack, with plenty of creative players supporting the generally prolific strikers very well. At the same time the obvious weakness is the defence, with the team’s depth also concern as at the time of writing Paderborn have just 3 typical full-backs in their ranks with none of them 3 older than 23.