Sturm have been on a steady decline since losing Franco Foda as their manager midway through the 2017/18 season, but his replacement Heiko Vogel was able to keep his job mostly thanks to winning the Austrian Cup last season.
However, the improvements that the Grazers were hoping for past the summer never really arrived, as they kept struggling in the league, with Vogel's pragmatic style not being in line with the club's philosophy of playing attacking football.
While the Grazers never had much of a chance against Ajax in the Champions League qualifiers, their 7:0 aggregate defeat to AEK Larnace in the Europa League qualifiers got the alarm bells ringing. With their domestic form being far from great, it was hardly a surprise that Vogel failed to last the autumn season and was ultimately replaced by Roman Mahlich.
Things improved for a while under their new manager, but went south again in the second half of the season, with the departure of key attacking midfielder Peter Zulj certainly not helping things.
They made the Championship Group but finished fifth, meaning that they had to participate in the Europa League Play-offs.
While far from impressive against Rapid in the Play-offs, they edged out the Viennese on away goals and will therefore play in Europa League qualifiers early next season. While they have met their minimum goal for the season, the football they have been playing and their lack of momentum give them plenty to worry about.
