Football Season Guide

It took Paderborn two seasons to return back to the Second Tier, with coach Steffen Baumgart making the Blues play some very modern football last season. This trend of quick-passing and counter-pressing displays is likely to continue into the new campaign and these days Paderborn’s camp seems to be a very happy and relaxed place. The only regular that left the squad was winger Yeboah, his loan ended, but the gaffer signed some very good names and Paderborn look very well equipped for the higher division. The most popular transfer was the re-signing of the ex-captain Hunemeier, who should form a formidable partnership with the current armband wearer Strohdiek in the heart of the defence. Playmaker Ritter also made his loan a permanent move and with him organising the forward moves Paderborn looked really creative in the final third of the pitch all of last season. Probably the weakest area of the team at the moment of writing is the heart of the midfield where none of Krausse, Wassey, Gjasula or Wimmer has huge experience at this level. Paderborn are linked with two high-profile holding midfielders though and before August is over there might be strengthening in this area. The other issue for some of the pundits is the absence of a proven goalscorer in the squad. Michel was very effective in the lower division as leader of the attack, but his record in Bundesliga 2 is pretty dismal and he will have to prove that he can change that. The alternatives are youngsters Duker, signed just this summer, and Tietz with neither of them having any experience at this level. The main formation last season was 4-4-2 and there is no reason for the gaffer to be changing it. That said in two of the friendlies he experimented with 3-4-2-1, but on both occasions costly mistakes were made at the back and he hasn’t tried this formation since. Coach Baumgart should be relatively satisfied with his squad and with such a solid back line Paderborn are expected to be a side very hard to score against. This hints that how successful the season will be will be determined by how many goals are scored at the other end.