Sandhausen, the team with smallest budged in Bundesliga 2 for the past 6 seasons, once again defied the odds and stayed in the division without too much trouble. With 10 points collected from the first 5 rounds Sandhausen quickly established above the bottom 3 and despite some hick-ups on the way they never faltered too much on the way to equalling their best ever finish in this division.
The most worrying times were during the months long COVID-break, with the team’s finances poor even without that and also not certain how it would affect the players. Sandhausen proved all doubters wrong though and they resumed the season in May with 6 consecutive impressive displays (W3 D2 L1), which secured the mid-table finish with 4 games to spare.
Main anchor-man Denis Linsmayer had very strong season, top scorer Behrens also contributed a lot (12 goals and 5 assists), but undoubtedly the most important player was goalkeeper Fraisl. His saves brought lots of points and despite Sandhausen being on the back foot in many of their games Fraisl made himself very hard to beat. Not just that but he led the league for most intercepted crosses and also provided 2 assists with his precise long clearances.
In terms of weaknesses it was obvious that up until changing the formation to 3 at the back Sandhausen were way too vulnerable. Also the team lacked creative midfielders all season, with departure of Forster at end of August never addressed with new signing.
Despite the successful campaign it’s worrying times for Sandhausen as the financial impact of COVID is yet to be evaluated properly and the team’s existence is deemed questionable right now. If financial troubles persist Sandhausen could be demoted to a lower league even before the start of the new campaign.
