Hertha Berlin looked like they might prove to be the surprise package of this Bundesliga season as they occupied a top seven place for much of the opening round of matches which would eventually have been enough to secure a Europa League place. After a reasonably slow start to the season, Jos Luhukay's side became very effective at grinding out results with striker Adrian Ramos the ace up their sleeve as he scored consistently to help keep the points racking up. Hertha made a conscious effort at the start of the season to not have a huge turnover of players, as many newly promoted sides tend to do, but they did make some very shrewd purchases in defence with both Sebastian Langkamp, brought in from Augsburg, and Johannes van den Bergh, from Fortuna Düsseldorf, regular players in the starting team. The opening round of matches was crowned with an away win against Borussia Dortmund and, at Christmas, they looked in form and ready to mount a challenge for the top seven. However, after the winter break their form changed both rapidly and worryingly as they began to struggle for points and the dream of a European place quickly evaporated. At first they continued to pick up wins against the struggling sides but at one stage they went on a run of nine matches without a win, which was very worrying for the team and rumours circulated on a managerial change. But Lukukay kept hold of his job and eventually guided his side to a respectable eleventh place finish in the league although they have plenty of work to do over the summer to steady the ship and this was evident by the thrashing from Dortmund they received on the final day of the season. Their stand out performer of the season was not Ramos and his sixteen goals who fell out of favour at the end of the season due to his pending move to Dortmund. But rather summer signing Sebastian Langkamp, who was practically ever present at the back for Hertha and kept their defence structured and organised throughtout the whole season, he will be a big player again for them next season.
