Football Season Guide

Ried are coming from an up and down season, which saw them start slowly and flirt with relegation, but they improved over time under Paul Gludovatz and managed to beat the drop relatively comfortably, mostly due to their impressive home form. The 69-year-old has opted to resign from his post at the end of the previous season, leaving Ried in a position similar to the one they were in a year ago, as they will have a foreign manager in charge in Christian Benbennek, and have also lost some of their most important players in Bernhard Janeczek, Petar Filipovic and Denis Streker. The Vikings have established themselves as a club built on hard work and efficiency and seem to thrive under managers who have been at the club for years, as has been the case with Oliver Glasner and Gludovatz. Benbennek, despite having plenty of experience in German lower leagues, is therefore being met with skepticism by large portions of the fans, with many drawing parallels between his appointment and the appointment of Helgi Kolvidsson a year ago. Of course, this does not have to mean anything, but it is safe to say that Ried are certainly entering the new season with plenty of uncertainty surrounding them, as they have brought in a manager and several players who are all unproven at Bundesliga level. The Vikings are always lovable underdogs who live and die by their level of organization, and things could definitely turn ugly for them if Benbennek proves unable to install this limited side with the kind of steel that his predecessor could.