It was absolutely a great season for Gaziantep FK. The eighth place saw them pass lots of experienced clubs in the Super League and it was a great success for coach Sumudica after the local media had claimed that he would have caused the club's bankruptcy in the early fixtures.
During the whole season, they were unable to catch a steady run, but their 5-3-2 formation, which is not often used in the Super League, caused some big problems to some teams like Besiktas, Sivas, Galatasaray and Trabzon. Although Kayode missed 7 fixtures in the league, they were spurred by his 10-goal and 6-assist performance. No doubt that the biggest contribution belongs to Papy Djilobodji. The strong center-back produced six goals besides being the most steady member of the backline.
Since their formation is based on not losing at first, it was not easy to defeat them. That is why they recorded most draws at the end. Especially, they did a great job in the recent fixtures and an 8-game unbeaten run enabled them to finish in the top 8.
During most of the season, the coach did not have any big problem with injuries and suspensions. So he was able to use his best line up in general, but it is obvious that they could have offered a better performance, had they not lacked quality.
The board are expected to keep on working with the Romanian coach and he has already declared that he wants to see 4 new players coming in the summer. Considering that he has already built the necessary trust on the board and the fans, he could enable his team to be successful once again.
