Football Season Guide

After 6 years at the helm, boss Zeidler left to join VfL Bochum. This is a big change for the club, and it may impact them significantly, particularly in the early rounds. Enrico Maassen has joined as his replacement, formerly of Augsburg and Bv09 Borussia Dortmund. St. Gallen and Zeidler were synonymous terms for a long time though, and replacing someone like that does not come easily. Almost all of their current squad were signed to be part of his visual; if Maassen has a different outlook then a lot of these players simply won't fit into the squad anymore. RB Konrad Faber was signed to replace the departing Mattia Zanotti; the latter will be very hard to replace, and Faber is going to have to do it because they've somewhat surprisingly let Sutter leave, which means there's no natural backup at RB, which is one problem. They're still without a recognisable goal-scorer as Geubbels is injured too often, hence the loan extension of Milosevic, who did well when he wasn't injured last season. They've even lost the height and intelligent of Schubert so their attack looks a little lightweight. They've still got a very strong nucleus of Quintilla, Gortler, and Witzig in midfield but if they lose any of them - particularly Captain Gortler - then they do tend to find life harder, although Stevanovic did well in spells last season. Fazliji's return from a bad injury will help them out there too, although the new boss could prefer to use him at CB. It's not a coincidence that they've predominantly recruited from Germany again, and not just because of the geographical situation - St. Gallen play like a lower league team in Germany i.e. plenty of industry, prioritising comfort on the ball over anything else. This can make them very hard to beat. However, unless they find an artful solution (unless Milosevic is it) to their attacking issues then they could struggle this season, particularly if the new manager doesn't settle. It's a bit of a coin toss with St. Gallen but it's possible they'll finish lower than usual, although relegation shouldn't even enter the topic of conversation because of the quality in midfield.