After dramatically missing on a promotion in the previous season Nurnberg had to change managers in the summer as Weiler was recruited by the Belgian giants Anderlecht. Alois Schwartz arrived with his high reputation in this level of football but he was slightly passive on the transfer market in the summer and his decision to trust those that carried the team in the previous campaign proved the wrong one.
Nurnberg had their most solid inner midfielder Erras injured pretty much for the entire season, he didn’t make his debut until the penultimate round, and in general the Bavarians were plagued by some serious injury problems throughout the entire campaign. In fact, around Easter things were so bad that four players from the U21 squad had to start for the senior formation because 15 players were out injured or suspended.
Nurnberg opened the campaign with the miserable two points in the first six rounds and, despite the fact that the team’s goal machine Guido Burgstaller continued to contribute, there were some serious defensive issues. In the autumn the players responded to this slow start though and a run of five wins and two draws between September and November put Nurnberg in a great position to attack the top three places. Burgstaller continued to be really impressive in attack, but the two summer signings Matavz and Parker never got going and, with both of them missing two periods due to injuries, their contributions were minimal.
Nurnberg ended 2016 with back-to-back wins to keep the hope of catching the top three alive, but in January Burgstaller was tempted by a lucrative offer from Schalke and his departure exposed a massive gap in attack. Schwartz tried to find a new striker and he signed Ishak, but the Swede struggled to acclimatise all spring and started just 4 times.
As it was the manager’s decision to sell Burgstaller before the end of the season the pressure was on him and, when Nurnberg lost four of their opening six games in 2017, Schwartz was sacked. By that point the hope to catch the top three was already lost, but the point tally was decent enough not to worry about relegation and, with that in mind, the Board decided to trust the U21 boss to finish the season as they started looking for a new permanent boss to take charge in the summer.
Nurnberg were really struggling late in the campaign because of all the injuries that piled up, but at least this allowed some of the talented youngsters to shine. Kammerbauer and Muhl impressed with their versatility, with Lippert also playing very well until he also got injured, but the brightest young talent was winger Sabiri. He scored 5 goals in his 8 appearances for the senior squad and, without a doubt, whoever takes charge in the summer will use the explosive Moroccan a lot next year.
