Sturm have established themselves as a part of Austrian Bundesliga's big four over the recent years, together with Salzburg, Austria and Rapid, and their eventual third-placed finish was in line with their pre-season hopes.
The Grazers actually entered the season with a lot of uncertainty surrounding them, as they had a lot of changes during the summer, with several key players leaving and a lot of new players joining. The big question was how the new players would gel, but the Blackies went on to make a mockery out of pre-season predictions that they would struggle, as they played some amazing football and even led the league until fifteen games into the season.
Their form in the opening twelve games was particularly impressive, as they won nine of them, with this run including victories over Salzburg both at home and away, but reality eventually went to kick in, as the Grazers significantly slowed down in the remainder of the autumn season, while also being knocked out of the Austrian Cup by St.Polten.
Uros Matic, who joined during the summer and played a star role in their autumn season push, leaving for Danish champions FC Copenhagen during the winter break, any remaining hopes that the Grazers may have had that they could usurp Salzburg's throne were gone.
What was left for Sturm in the spring season was to try and finish inside the top three and, while trailing to both Austria and Altach for long periods, they eventually managed to finish above the Altachers and qualify for next season's Europa League qualifiers. Given how high they had flown in the first half of the season, Sturm's season was somewhat anti-climatic, but there is little doubt that they would have gladly taken their final finishing position had it been offered for them prior to the start of the season.
