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Our next Get German Football News 2026/27 Bundesliga tactical preview installment takes a look at one of the three German football clubs for which the author holds a membership. Augsburg get their turn. There exist so very many fond memories of visiting this town and engaging in the deep footballing conversations with the locals in their curly adorable dialect. Deep affection and sympathy for the Fuggerstädter led to plenty of grumpy and grievance-laden columns last year.The previous FCA pieces, in addition to featuring plenty of anti Sandro Wagner rants, assailed this club’s “Römer Rebranding”. The author issued passionate pleas for Augsburg to get back its more boring roots of banking and puppets.
The author wasn’t alone in expressing this idea. Club ultras too mocked the whole “Augusta Vindelicum” hype and implored the pride of their hometown to get back to the basics. Augsburg listened. Manuel Baum returned to initially “install a few guardrails on the local Autobahn”, then ensure that his team quietly, comfortably, and mostly anonymously worked in the far-right-hand slow-lane on which no one would bother, or indeed even notice, them. Well done. Bravo. Has Augsburg’s “Römer Rebranding” been abandoned? Of course not. Way too much money has already been invested in outfitting the stadium tunnel and designing (no joke) marble-themed tricots to get the “AV” hats off the rack. The “Römerstadt Recasting” is here to stay.
Augsburg continue to head in divergent directions with their head coach (steady and unexciting) and their marketing (a laughable piece of butch ambition). If all goes according to plan, Baum’s team shall finish what they set out to do: secure a 17th consecutive season of Bundesliga football. Yes, that’s it. Mediocrity isn’t a derogatory term in the land of the “Puppenkiste”. Just keep the team in the top flight so that the “Kids Club” can have a nice time circling around the pitch every day. One doesn’t need to strive for the European football of the Markus Weinzierl days. That doesn’t serve the “Kids Club”. The little ones wouldn’t be able to enjoy European nights under the floodlights as it’s past their bedtime anyway.
FC Augsburg
Baum did a fabulous job stabilizing this team in a 3-4-2-1. It essentially seems as if the current roster was deliberately constructed to give Baum another year in this safe set-up. In fairness, the next generation of strikers stirs some excitement. Club managers have a long range plan for more ambitious football in place. In order to get the construction project of the Bavarian Swabian version of the eternal city going, however, one must first concentrate on stopping “Rome” from burning. Embers of the Wagner fire still burn. As such, moves over the course of the summer mostly fell squarely into the “safe” camp.
Major personnel shifts, Augsburg
In their first full summer in charge of the FCA front office, administrators Benni Weber, Marc Lettau, and Julian Baumgartlinger definitely took the “Rome wasn’t built in a day” approach. The overarching priority remained continuity. Baum – with apparently not too much convincing – was persuaded to remain on as head coach rather than return to his previous development role. The two loan strikers who helped stabilize matters under him were also retained permanently. Augsburg paid €5m to keep Rodrigo Ribeiro and a comparatively modest €700,000 for Michael Gregoritsch. The pair offer Baum two very different options: Ribeiro as the more mobile developmental striker and Gregoritsch as the experienced target man capable of occupying defenders and holding the ball up.
The defensive work also followed an admirably uncomplicated logic. Hennes Behrens arrived from Hoffenheim for €3.5m as the successor to Dimitrios Giannoulis on the left. Calvin Brackelmann joined on a free from newly-promoted Paderborn to replace Cédric Zesiger in the back three. Sima Suso – acquired from relegated 2. Bundesliga outfit Düsseldorf for €1.6m – adds another young option in central midfield, though Han-Noah Massengo and Fabian Rieder appear to have firmly established themselves as Baum’s preferred double-six. Nothing especially revolutionary here. Good. Any true Roman can attest to the horror of having “too many emperors” in a short span of time.
In order to make room for Behrens, Giannoulis was ultimately sold on a rather neatly negotiated deal that included a friendly with PAOK Thessaloniki. Zesiger likewise headed back to his homeland with Young Boys. Together, the two defenders generated €7.75m in revenue. This group of executives also distinguished themselves from previous managerial regimes by doing an excellent job trimming the roster down. Complaints from the author about poor squad balance under executives such as Stefan Reuter and Marinko Jurendic are long forgotten. Michael Ströll and his administrative assistants moved on Henri Koudossou, David Colina, Maximilian Bauer, Elvis Rexhbecaj, and Oliver Sorg while also clearing several returning loanees and fringe pieces from the books.
Kyliane Dong, Elias Saad, and Aiman Dardari all received developmental loan outs. Yusuf Kabadayi headed to Rijeka for another year as well. In something that counted as one of the bigger surprises of the summer – though not quite as much once one gives it some thought – the tanking Zesiger was simply shipped back to Switzerland. Augsburg have generally resisted the temptation to turn every usable asset into transfer revenue, however. Chrislain Matsima remains after the Crystal Palace move collapsed, while Mert Kömür has thus far been protected from English interest despite a rejected €10m Hull City offer.
That last point matters because the summer may yet become considerably less boring. Kömür remains one of the most valuable young assets in the squad. Alexis Claude-Maurice has openly entertained the idea of taking a “next step” after two seasons as one of Augsburg’s difference-makers, and the FCA are not historically inclined to block the right sale. Should either leave, another attacking move becomes likely. For now, though, the overall picture remains refreshingly safe: preserve the spine, make sensible replacements, clean out the clutter, and avoid setting anything on fire. Rome can wait.
Notes from pre-season, Augsburg
Before actually getting into the results, it must be emphasized that Baum employed way more experimentation in pre-season than one anticipated. While he mostly kept the 3-4-2-1 intact (sometimes a 3-4-3 or 3-6-1), no two midfielders paired together twice. The likes of Robin Fellhauer, Anton Kade, Fabian Rieder, and even Marius Wolf moved around quite a bit. Wolf served as high up as a second axis attacking winger several times, something not regularly seen since the 31-year-old’s Köln days. We’ll happily give Baum the benefit of the doubt in this case, assuming that the FCA trainer simply wished to test out his squad’s versatility rather than completely trash this piece’s thesis.
With a smirk firmly implanted on his face, the author is pleased to report that the first light tune-up of the pre-season came against an assembled group known as the “Swabian Selection”. He admittedly isn’t certain as to why this amuses him. Something about Swabians being satisfied enough with themselves (or indeed anything) to come up with such a moniker is just funny. Whoever the hell the “Swabian Selection” happened to be, they certainly didn’t whip their Bavarian Swabian friends into much shape to face FC Saarbrücken one week later. Mert Kömür had to snatch a late equalizer to preserve a 1-1 draw. Keeper Labrovic also had to bail the Bundesliga side out late.
Baum’s team barely featured any sort of shape at all in their first major friendly. One definitely saw last year’s 3-4-2-1 against Bournemouth in the next exhibition, however; or at least what passed for it. The English Cherries, after opening the floodgates around the hour-mark, put five goals past their German hosts in a 120-minute scrimmage. Alexis Claude-Maurice and the intriguing Tim Schnitzer scored in quick succession to lend the match a final 2-5 scoreline. It’s important to note that Baum’s original XI held firm over the course of the initial 60 minutes. After the FCA trainer put an entirely new XI on the pitch following the second break, everything turned into a free-for-all.
The team received a chance to practice a Sunday kickabout against an amateur opponent next. The “weekend warriors” from the Austrian town of Schwaz allowed the Fuggerstädter to net a grand total of 15 goals over the course of 90 minutes. The totally forgotten Uchenna Ogundu notched a hat trick. Marius Wolf bagged a brace. Anton Kade also doubled up. For the love of all things Holy Roman Empire, Nathanaël Mbuku and Tomas Kastanaras scored! One simply can’t take this result seriously. An author moderately obsessed (in true German style) with the way clubs set up pre-season friendlies will note that it still didn’t get the job done. The lack of confidence from the Bournemouth match remained evident.
Fluster and bluster carried over to the next friendly against US Sassuolo at the WWK Arena. Noahkai Banks committed a foul (actually just outside the area) in the first half, enabling the guests to take the lead from the penalty spot. Keeper Finn Dahmen then helped the Italians double the advantage by aimlessly wandering off his line. To their immense credit, Baum’s side continued to fight and actually pulled out a victory. Robin Fellhauer headed in a cross from Marius Wolf to pull one back. Shortly before halftime, Anton Kade tied the score at 2–2: Following a long ball from Keven Schlotterbeck, he lobbed the ball over an onrushing defender. Hennes Behrens scored the winner shortly after the break. Despite plenty of chances, the hosts weren’t able to extend their lead.
The rollercoaster ride of preseason results nevertheless continued. Just like in the opening paragraph, we must once again pose the question: Did Baum actually get the proper memo? The one about how he was supposed to keep this team working at “construction speed”? For the second time amid the slate of exhibition fixtures, the Fuggerstädter drew a spanking from Premier League opposition. A 5-2-3 totally failed to match up against Leeds in the final friendly. Baum’s charges fell behind 0-3, initially crushed by an early goal from German international Anton Stach.
The German guests appeared rudderless and helpless against the Peacocks, never even really coming close to manufacturing a real scoring chance. Finn Dahmen made several saves that prevented Leeds from adding to their tally. The fact that it was, after all, an exhibition match also led to Leeds deliberately downshifting after the third goal. Augsburg still produced nothing of note beyond slightly better defending in the second 45. Another former German international, Lukas Nmecha, capped proceedings with the 4-0 in the 82nd minute.
Tactically, Baum’s crew were a little all over the place. At times the team re-formatted into a 3-4-3 in an effort to get some forward thrust going. It produced zilch. Robin Fellhauer played three positions, something actually not uncommon for him. The 28-year-old was nevertheless uncommonly bad as a left winger, central midfielder, and right wingback. This result happens to be the absolute last thing Augsburg needed with an away Pokal fixture against Energie Cottbus coming up next weekend. Things can quickly get dicey.
Oh well.
Rome wasn’t burnt in a day!
Winners from camp, Augsburg
Uchenna Ogundu, CF
Baum’s contention that Michael Gregoritsch and Rodrigo Ribeiro could potentially co-exist in a two-striker set appears to be nothing more than hot air. In point of fact, neither one of the candidates to lead the line looked especially good during the prep phase. The author still gives Gregoritsch the nod in what didn’t exactly amount to a gladiatorial battle royale. The player we’re currently discussing absolutely doesn’t look like a starting XI candidate, but at least managed to remind everyone that he still exists. A hat trick in the utterly meaningless 15-goal Schwaz demolition naturally proves very little. Ogundu emerges from camp with something he didn’t really possess beforehand: a plausible argument for inclusion in the attacking rotation.
No one should mistake that for a breakthrough just yet. Gregoritsch remains the safest option, Ribeiro the more heavily invested developmental project, and Baum has enough attacking bodies to ensure that minutes won’t simply fall into Ogundu’s lap. The author happens to think Steve Mounie probably gets another shot (and probably deserves one under the proper trainer) before Baum pencils the 20-year-old in. Still, preseason exists partly so that players can earn themselves another look. Mission accomplished. Don’t send him out on loan like Mounie! Let the kid hang around!
Marius Wolf, RW
Yes, this actually appears like it might work. At least that’s what one would have said prior to the final friendly. Wolf genuinely surprised in some of the scouted matches. Call the author crazy, but deploying the 31-year-old much higher up the pitch actually seemed to breathe some life back into him. Baum repeatedly used Wolf as a second-axis attacking winger, something not regularly seen since his Köln days. He bagged a brace in the Schwaz rout and, more significantly, supplied the cross for Robin Fellhauer’s comeback goal against Sassuolo. The legs may no longer be suited to endlessly bombing up and down an entire flank. Give him less grass to cover and a few more opportunities to attack the box, however, and there might still be something useful left.
Naturally, Leeds then arrived to ruin all the fun. Wolf was part of a collective attacking failure in the final tune-up and hardly offered compelling evidence that this experiment deserves to become a permanent fixture. Still, Augsburg aren’t exactly asking him to set the world ablaze. At the very least, he can serve as a placeholder on the left attacking flank until a reinforcement arrives or keep Fellhauer’s natural place on the right warm until that – the squad’s weakest position -gets sorted. If Baum can squeeze a few productive attacking cameos out of the veteran, that already counts as a minor preseason victory. Maybe the old Wolf still has a few bites left in him. It’s not quite time to take him to the vet yet!
Yannik Keitel, CM
Yes, this actually appears like it might work as well. Again, that was until the final friendly. Taking advantage of absences of Kristijan Jakic, Sima Suso, Alexis Claude-Maurice, and Anton Kade, the VfB Stuttgart loanee logged plenty of minutes in midfield and also as a makeshift central defender. This may all mean very little once competitive play gets started. Keitel also benefitted from Han-Noah “Hans” Massengo’s late bout of illness. It might prove the case that Keitel ends up being nothing more than this season’s version of Jakic, a “plug-man” for whenever a body is needed on the back-three axes.
That still constitutes an upgrade for him. The fact that we’re discussing who gets to be the man who replaces Jakic at club level at least provides some assurances that we’re back in the boring space this club needs to be in. Keitel actually wasn’t a boring player during his Freiburg days and many of us Bundesliga diehards never felt like the 26-year-old got a fair shake at Stuttgart. Keitel’s section dovetails with Wolf’s in more ways than one. Having Keitel serve in the midfield frees up Rieder to take the left-hand attacking slot until a solution can be found.
Hennes Behrens, LB
Get to know the name. The 21-year-old already showed during his Heidenheim loan that he could handle Bundesliga football, pushing aggressively up the left and supplying genuine attacking quality from deep. Before that, TSG II used him in a variety of positions. He’s a mini-Fellhauer. There’s considerably more versatility here than the positional label suggests. Augsburg now look set to reap the benefit. Behrens has been lively throughout the summer, scored the winner against Sassuolo, and appears perfectly suited to inheriting Giannoulis’ role. The author expects him to make his mark for both club and country at U21 level sooner rather than later.
Tim Schnitzer, CM
Get to know this name too. In Schnitzer’s case, it’s rather difficult to forget. One letter removed from “Schnitzel” works perfectly for German football fans. The Augsburg native has been with the club since the U10s, routinely played above his age group, captained the U17s, and earned a long-term professional deal before eventually making his Bundesliga debut against Leipzig last March. Now 18, Schnitzer featured from the opening summer friendly onward and supplied one of the few genuinely encouraging moments against serious opposition when he scored in the 5-2 defeat to Bournemouth. There should be room for the youngster to collect meaningful senior minutes. No need to slice this particular Schnitzel too thin just yet.
Noahkai Banks, CB
Most of us Bundesliga chroniclers already know this name. Some of us still forget how to spell the first name despite having written dozens of articles about him. The 19-year-old started all but one of the six preseason test fixtures. Working central with Schnitzer to his right in the Schwaz rout, he added a goal in the (albeit meaningless) pile-on friendly. Some may not think that six pre-season starts are relevant, but the author has a feeling that 35-year-old skipper Jeffrey Gouweleeuw can’t hack as the back three anchor in every last match. Banks’ deployments seemed much more than a simple audition. Gouweleeuw can take it a bit easier, coming in to influence matches later.
Losers from camp, Augsburg
Alexis Claude-Maurice, ATTM
The famed “Lupenreiner” Frenchman has had to battle with both injury and outgoing transfer rumors. The 28-year-old turned in respectable enough production numbers (five Bundesliga goals and six assists last season), but collected all but two of his scorer points during an especially strong form surge between mid January and late March. Baum’s surplus of strikers on this squad likely translates to forwards getting the attacking deployments on the buttressing support axis. There’s simply no room for Claude-Maurice, who also happens to be entering the final year of his contract.
Sima Suso, CM
One pre-season start in the defensive ranks followed by an injury. The 21-year-old didn’t get his proper chance to audition for Jakic’s role. Massengo and Rieder remain the preferred pairing, Keitel took advantage of the absences to log useful minutes, and Baum even spent parts of camp repurposing other players in central areas. Suso therefore enters the season as more of a developmental depth piece than an immediate challenger. Given his age and the relatively modest investment made in him, that hardly counts as a disaster. It simply means that the new arrival’s first real audition has been postponed.
Tim Breithaupt, DM
Ugh. This one falls squarely into the “when is this going to be over?” category. Since joining Augsburg on a €2.5m transfer from KSC in the summer of 2023, it’s been all downhill for this 24-year-old. Breithaupt arrived as a highly regarded Germany youth international after 57 2. Bundesliga appearances for Karlsruhe, but never progressed beyond 18 Bundesliga outings for the FCA. Sixteen of those came in his debut season; by 2024/25 he had effectively disappeared from the rotation before Augsburg sent him first to Kaiserslautern and then Düsseldorf on successive 2. Bundesliga loans. Both were wretched. Breithaupt received a right wingback audition this summer and it was nauseating. Please don’t send him back to Lautern!
Calvin Brackelmann, CB
A highly touted summer signing may end up being the next Patric Peiffer, whom some will recall was signed away from promoted Darmstadt ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and never made a Bundesliga breakthrough. With Chrislain Matsima staying, Keven Schlotterbeck has the left-hand-side center back position nailed down. As noted above, Banks is the preferred option on the right. The back-three may be the only true consistency in Manuel Baum’s squad right now. Naturally, this could all change if Matsima or Schlotterbeck do end up departing before the transfer window closes.
Finn Dahmen, GK
This seems almost sacrilegious, but the German national team contender simply hasn’t had a good camp. One suspects it may have something to do with the new goalkeeping coaches or the fact that the 28-year-old is somewhat distracted upon entering the final year of his contract. Dahmen wandered aimlessly off his line to gift Sassuolo their second goal and endured several other shaky moments during the test slate, even if he later prevented the Leeds humiliation from becoming substantially worse. None of this seriously threatens his status as Baum’s undisputed No. 1. It does, however, leave Augsburg with one more slightly uncomfortable issue to resolve before the season begins.
Tactical Scout, Augsburg
To pick up on an operating principle articulated above, we’ll be giving Baum the benefit of the doubt for the purposes of this analysis. In actuality, Baum really may not have any sort of choice. What experimentation he did try out failed miserably against opponents worth their salt. As Bundesliga enthusiasts (hopefully very many of them) break out the pens and circle potential Pokal fixtures to watch, Augsburg’s trip to Cottbus remains more than worthy of your time. It’s certainly better than the competing 13:00 SV Wehen Wiesbaden-Bayer 04 Leverkusen offering.
Will the newly promoted Ossies dump the Bavarian Swabians out of the Pokal? It may well be that we have our first major upset brewing. The last thing Baum (and the club’s expensive Römer-rebranding) needs is a repeat of the Enrico Maaßen Unterhaching match three years ago. For that matter, after last year’s home elimination under Wagner against Bochum, there’s surely still players on this team a little nervy about playing cup football. It thus cannot be emphasized enough that Baum must deploy his strongest XI immediately here. If it all comes down to nothing more than marching orders and muscle memory…well…that’s quite Roman!
It’s not the hardest task in the world to project this:
Lineup–FCA (PROJECTED)
This FCA member proudly stands by this projection. If Baum keeps it in place, Roman auguries forecast a hard-fought 1-0 victory! Don’t doubt the tactical prowess of a writer who (one year on) recalls he once promised to start using the name “Hans Massengo” on the tactics board. He also hasn’t forgotten that brick the club once sent him or the 3,472nd Sandro Wagner interview piece he opted to pick up.
It’s probably for the best to cut the stroll down memory lane short for now, for the benefit of both the readers and writer alike. Suffice to say that Baum can fulfill his mission of keeping this team perfectly mediocre and safely anchored in mid table so as to assure more wonderful footballing afternoons in this lovely little town. By the time the spring book fair rolls around, that’s perfectly acceptable to the local population anyway.
Is it possible that Augsburg can hope for more? Sure. The likes of Rieder and Massengo were among the leaders in Bundesliga “pre-assists” last season. If Baum can eventually get the team settled and some injuries clear up, the current double-six axis possesses the potential to feed the attack. Reider can move back to pair with Massengo. Kade or another signing can take over his position.
One more natural left flank attacker pick-up on the transfer market could even warrant a 4-2-3-1 re-format with the highly talented Kade working as a No. 10. And then? We’ve gotten too far ahead of ourselves already. That’s precisely what no one associated with this club needs to do. Just stick to the marching orders and keep in the Autobahn’s right-hand lane.
That’ll do for now.
