Football Season Guide

Köln had a perfectly solid season last year as they consolidated their position in the league with a ninth place finish and they were never really in trouble of dropping into the relegation fight. Peter Stöger was able to develop his side from a team that only played on the defensive to one with interesting attacking options. In is once again the attack that has received most attention this summer with a couple of new strikers coming into the team to give more support to Anthony Modeste who was isolated at times last season when he played as a lone striker. Artjoms Rudnevs is experienced operator in the Bundesliga but will probably be more of a back up option while Sehrou Guirassy arrives from Lille hoping to make a quick impact and get into the starting team. Further attacking support will come from Konstantin Rausch who has also spent plenty of time in the top two leagues of German football. The addition of Marco Höger comes as a replacement for Kevin Vogt who has moved to Hoffenheim but Stöger is cut very much from the same mold as a ball winning midfielder. The main reason for having to add some attacking flavour is partly due to their woeful goal scoring record from last season but also as they lost Dusan Svento, but more importantly Yannick Gerhardt over the summer. Gerhardt had just started to break into the team and has great potential so that will be a big loss to see him go. Stöger has resisted temptation to add any defenders to his squad and that should give them a good basis to go into the season as the back line will know each other well. Certainly among the back four Jonas Hector showed his ability with the German national team at Euro 2016 and the club will do well to hang on to him. While Stöger has a crafted a solid team with a few good players Köln still lack the flair and ability of other sides in the league and a top half finish again this year will be good going. Somewhere in the mid table though is very achievable and that will be the target again.