Wolfsberger have established themselves as a solid midtable Bundesliga club over the last few seasons, but the campaign they have had in the season that is now behind us was not up to their usual standards, given that they ended up fighting against the drop until late on.
It would have been difficult to predict that things would turn out this way following the first half of the season, which saw them be their usual tough selves at home, while they even started adding away wins to their arsenal midway through the autumn season. They were sitting firmly inside the midtable places going into the winter break and, while a European push looked impossible due to the fact that four sides clearly separated themselves from the rest of the league, it was also hard to see them getting dragged into the relegation battle.
However, they went on to endure a difficult spring season, which saw them win only five games, with two of those victories coming in their last three games, with these results actually allowing them to secure their survival.
Wolfsberger were never a particularly good side going forward, but were rather a side built on solid defence. However, they were not nearly as good at protecting their goal as they normally are, as they ended the season with the second-worst defensive record in the league. To Hemo Pfeifenberger's defence, this, as well as his side's overall struggles in the second half of the season, probably have to do with the injury situation that he had to deal with, as he was without up to ten players in certain spring season games, while the list of injuries rarely contained less than five or six names.
Given these circumstances, it is actually a rather decent achievement that Wolfsberger managed to stay up, but they definitely do not have momentum going their way and have reasons to worry going into the new season.
