Newcomers Erzgebirge achieved a spring turnaround to save themselves from what seemed a certain relegation for very long. The Violets tried to strengthen their squad the best they could in the summer with the limited resources they had, but life in the Second Tier was difficult and Erzgebirge achieved just three wins in the opening 17 rounds before Christmas.
Still, it must be said that coach Dotchev was trusted both by fans and players after delivering the promotion a year earlier and, despite the fact that the results were not particularly good, Erzgebirge were actually not playing badly. Several times in the autumn they suffered unfortunate defeats after conceding very late goals and luck was definitely not with the squad. Pascal Kopke, he was a find of Dotchev from last season, continued to score goals in almost every round, while veteran Tiffert was orchestrating the midfield very well.
All that said, Erzgebirge spent the winter break sitting in last place and, despite winning their first game of 2017, they soon started struggling again. The Violets failed to build on this early success and four rounds later, when Dynamo Dresden came to Aue to win 4:1, coach Dotchev decided to resign. His departure was sadly accepted by the club, but it turned out that he did the honourable and correct thing for Erzgebirge as the fresh change that the U19 coach Tedesco brought improved the displays quickly.
The new gaffer, this was his first experience at a senior level, started trusting experienced winger Nazarov much more and also he restored to his line-up the talented playmaker Kvesic. Both of them contributed crucial goals late in the season and it seemed that whatever Tedesco decided to change worked. He also changed the formation and only after Erzgebirge started playing with three at the back their forward actions became sharper. Tedesco’s first five games in charge saw him delivering four wins and a draw, which quickly changed the situation for the Violets.
Come Easter, Erzgebirge jumped out of the relegation zone altogether, but then back-to-back away defeats vs. Nurnberg and Stuttgart saw them collapsing in the bottom three again. Luckily both Kopke and Nazarov scored in rounds 31 and 32 to bring four precious points, which again moved the team closer to safety. The survival was confirmed in the penultimate round when Erzgebirge beat Kaiserslautern 1:0 on home turf and, despite the very small budget and modest experience at this level, the players celebrated their stay in the division.
