Football Season Guide

Stuttgart enjoyed a superb second half of last season to surge into a European spot and they will now look to carry that form into this new campaign. It promises to be an interesting one for the Stuttgarters as the first in their fully renovated stadium which is much more suited for football now the athletics track has gone. However, the team on the pitch has also gone through major changes with several established players leaving such as Gebhart, Delpierre and Boulahrouz while the failure to keep Schieber after he finally showed signs of hitting his potential is another blow. On the other hand, the players brought in look like being solid rather than brilliant which means there is a lot of pressure on the existing squad to carry the load, especially early on. Tasci and Niedermeir should form a strong central defensive pairing but there is also a solid presence in front of them as Kvist and Kuzmanovic are good holding players. Further up the park Hajnal, Gentner and Harnik are all capable of creating chances while Cacau and Ibisevic are two penalty box strikers of the highest order. Stuttgart will certainly challenge this season and the main question appears to be just how high they can go.