Football Season Guide

It was touch and go for Kaiserslautern last season but they eventually survived relegation. Wise old head Funkel led the side out of danger after Schuster and Grammozis were sacked due to poor results. Despite the doom and gloom in the league, the club enjoyed a fine run to the cup final, in which they narrowly lost to Bayer Leverkusen. Funkel’s appointment was only until the end of last season so another change of coach was necessary. Markus Angfang is the new boss and has plenty of experience across all levels of German football. He returned to management with Dynamo Dresden in 2022 after serving a ban for using a falsified Covid vaccination certificate. The first task for Angfang is to improve the squad and try and get The Red Devils competing at the top end of the table again. The club does already boast some good players, such as Ache, Ritter, and Tomiak but the addition of Gyamerah, Heuer, Kleinhansl, and Wekesser should help with the experience playing for previous clubs in this division. The permanent signing of Kaloc will also be well received after solid performances on loan last season. Mause is another interesting purchase from Ingolstadt, he was the top-scorer in the third division last season and is looking to take the next step in his career. Most of the regulars are still on board with the exception of Niehues who left for Heidenheim. The midfielder was injured at the back-end of last season, so his loss has already been dealt with as far as the team are concerned. Kaiserslautern are likely to be a match for anyone on their day, especially at home where the atmosphere can be rocking at times, under Angfang they should be more organised defensively, an area in which they struggled massively last season.