A brilliant second half of the season saw Stuttgart turn from a team struggling to stay clear of the relegation zone to finishing seventh in the Bundesliga table as they came close to securing a European qualification spot only to see it go to DFB Cup winners Eintracht Frankfurt.
Stuttgart made a decent start to the season after securing promotion, picking up victories at fairly regular intervals to sit comfortably in the top half of the table. The start of December though led to a major slump in form: Stuttgart could only manage to pick up three points, losing six of the seven games on either side of the winter break, with a defeat against Schalke pushing them close to the relegation zone and proving to be the final straw for the club, leading to Hannes Wolf's sacking.
Tayfun Korkut took over on an interim basis and the former Bayer Leverkusen coach triggered an immediate upturn in form, Stuttgart suffering just one more defeat for the rest of the season.
A solid defence was key to Stuttgart's improvement under Korkut. They kept seven clean sheets in 14 games and conceded more than one goal on just two occasions.
Benjamin Pavard struck a good understanding with Timo Baumgartl while Korkut's decision to field Dennis Aogo and Holger Badstuber in the midfield paid rich dividends with the duo lending a major helping hand to their defence. January signing Mario Gomez also chipped in with crucial goals, the attacker ending the season as top scorer with eight goals.
Stuttgart ended the season with four straight victories, which included a shock win at Bayern Munchen, and it looked to be enough to help them secure a Europa League spot as they finished seventh in the table, only for Frankfurt pulling another shock victory in the DFB Cup final which meant that only the top six teams qualified for Europe.
