Football Season Guide

The second half of the past season was an impressive one for Danny Buijs and his boys as they managed to qualify to the playoffs for a place in the Europa League. At his first year in charge, the young coach managed to obtain an array of positive results thanks to a tight defence and a cynical attack and he will now aim to do that again in the new season. It will be far from easy, though, as Groningen lost several players over the summer. Above all, they lost the services of wunderkind Reis, whose impressive skills in the middle of the park logically attracted Barcelona's interest. Beside him, they lost two regular defenders in Chabot, a centre-back, and Handwerker, a left-back, and their top scorer, Mahi, who was too injury-prone, though. The just-arrived experienced Van Hintum might thus be contending with junior player Absalem on the left while Memisevic, a midfielder, could be set for a definitive move to the heart of the defence. With Lundqvist likely becoming a protagonist in the midfield, Groningen also had to address their main problem in the past season, their scoring poorness that is. In fact, they had only managed to score 39 goals, just better than 2 relegated sides. They added the likes of Benschop and Gudmundsson to their attack and these ones will be expected to provide the goals.