Bundesliga 2025/26 Tactical Preview: FC Augsburg | OneFootball

In the third of our 18 Bundesliga tactical previews to be released here on Get German Football News, we’ll head to the Swabian section of Bavaria to see what’s up in the Fuggerstadt. Augsburg, like our previous subjects 1. FC Union Berlin and SV Werder Bremen, haven’t exactly had the most convincing pre-season. The case of the Fuggerstädter nevertheless doesn’t really engender as much concern among German football watchers. Why? Okay. In all honesty, it’s probably because we’re all smitten by Sandro Wagner. Naked bias. We’ll just get that out of the way first.

We’ve all been waiting for Wagner to begin his club coaching career in earnest ever since he retired, returned from China, and took up his broadcast career with DAZN. During the horrendously lonely COVID nightmare and the sheer torture that was spectator-less Bundesliga matches, Wagner’s insightful color commentary got us through many a German “Geisterspiel”. One would be hard pressed to find a German footballing enthusiast who didn’t think Wagner would make an awesome coach. A few of us even harbored secret ambitions that he might supplant Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann somehow.

In any event, we all finally get a chance to see Sandro coach a top flight club now. It isn’t the 37-year-old’s first rodeo, of course. Wagner spent two years in the Munich suburbs coaching SpVgg Unterhaching. He helped the Bobsledders earn promotion to the 3. Liga at the end of the 2022/23 campaign, actually leaving just a few months before Haching knocked Enrico Maaßen’s Augsburg out in the opening round of the 2023/24 Pokal. Now, Wagner is charged with avoiding the same fate. If he fails, we’ll all be heartbroken. Nagelsmann’s seat remains tenuous enough.

FC Augsburg

Like Bremen, Augsburg opted to “trade-up” despite playing a very good season last year. FCA opted not only to sack trainer Jess Thorup, but get rid of sporting director Marinko Jurendic. Five losses in the final six league fixtures certainly counted as a disappointment for a club that had European ambitions last spring, but Thorup still guided the team to their earliest ever clinch of Bundesliga safety in their 14 years in the German top flight. Jurendic at least got rid of Stefan Reuter’s tendency to sign bad players and axe the coach every spring.

Time shall tell whether the gamble works. It does appear that Wagner isn’t in much of a gambling mood, however. Thorup’s 3-4-3 still remains in place. The new trainer wants to keep the automatisms in place and primarily serve as more of a motivator that tactician at this point. Wagner’s playing career featured so many ups, downs, and crazy sideways moves that it appears he wants to be a lot more cautious when it comes to his coaching path. Leaving a nice cushy DFB chair to come to this burg was risky enough.

Major personnel shifts, Augsburg

Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = –€1.6 million

It remains far too early to assess the work of the new front office as the new team of administrators led by Benjamin Weber only just moved into their offices at the beginning of last month. Marc Lettau and Julian Baumgartlinger haven’t really gotten a chance to fulfill their squad planner roles yet. Manuel Baum’s influence in the youth department will take years to score. At least the former FCA trainer can’t possibly end up doing a poor a job as he did in Leipzig. Managing director Michael Ströll bridged the work of the Jurendic and Weber regimes this summer, by all accounts doing an admirable job.

Before Jurendic was sacked, the former FCA sporting director ensured that high quality central defenders Cedric Zesiger and Chrislain Matsima were purchased permanently. Ströll oversaw the procurement Burnley’s Han-Noah Massengo, Troyes’ Kyliane Dong, St. Pauli’s Elias Saad, and Elversberg’s Robin Fellhauer. Some decent cash for was secured for Dion Drena Beljo, Patric Pfeiffer, Lasse Günther, and Irvin Cardona. Ströll also pocketed loan fees for Nathanaël Mbuku and David Colina.

For once, Augsburg possess a balanced squad and a manageable roster size. Few Germans considered themselves fans of the work of long-time managing director Reuter, particularly in the last two years of his decade-long reign. The Bavarian-Swabians threw good money after bad and were frequently lucky to escape relegation as a result. Yes, the writer must get his obligatory “Bolt Football Holdings” reference in. A shame that such a charming German town finds itself associated with a U.S. investor. At least the post-Reuter Era has helped us forget that a bit.

Notes from camp, Augsburg

No “South African” getaway for the Fuggerstädter this year. The Bavarian Swabians plunked Wagner and company down in Austria. A total of nine pre-season friendlies were contested. Two afternoon “twin-bills” against Rot-Weiß Essen and Crystal Palace were contested. Oliver Glasner returned to his native land in the latter case to square off against Wagner’s charges. The FCA B-XI even bested Glasner’s Eagles in the nightcap. Prior to the big pre-season finale against Sunderland at the WWK-Arena, there was also an unannounced exhibition behind closed doors against Pisa.

One of the big talking points from the last match concerns the fact that the team looked pretty fatigued in their first real stadium-match. Starting striker Philipp Tietz – despite sporing his lucky blonde hair dye job – also failed to convert from the penalty spot. After the first few “summer kick-about friendlies”, Wagner hasn’t been big on employing substitutions. The new trainer clearly likes the idea of keeping a certain structure in place and wants his preferred players up to full match fitness well ahead of the season.

The hosting Bavarian Swabians actually didn’t look terribly bad against the English Black Cats. Sunderland constituted a fairly difficult last pre-season test. One nevertheless gets the impression that Wagner might be accused of running the lads ragged in during some of the camp exhibition. Surely the secret “snap-test” against Pisa was his idea. At this juncture, there’s nothing out there to suggest that Wagner ran a Felix Magath-style camp. So far as this author knows, all players had decent access to hydration.

Winners from camp, Augsburg

Keven Schlotterbeck, CB

Against all the odds, Nico Schlotterbeck’s elder brother has displaced the seemingly irreplaceable Cedric Zesiger. Keven – a severely underrated player amongst Bundesliga enthusiasts – fought his way back to claim a regular place in Wagner’s back-three. Wagner truly believes in the 28-year-old, who actually never even represented Germany at youth level. Keven earned starts on both sides of the “double headers”, in some cases donning the captain’s armband if Jeffrey Gouweleeuw wasn’t on the pitch. Keven went the full 90 minutes in the final friendly against Sunderland.

Many continue to wonder why Nico is a €40m-valued German international while Keven is a €6m-player who only once earned a Team D “pity deployment” at the Olympics. Physical ability obviously plays a role. Nico is a shade taller and much quicker. It’s nevertheless worth noting that Keven has scored 10 goals in 128 appearances for Freiburg, Union Berlin, and VfL Bochum. Nico has netted 11 in 149 deployments for Union, Freiburg, and Borussia Dortmund. Keven has also notched two Pokal tallies whilst his bother only ever netted one.

Keven happens to be quite the “late bloomer”. He only scored his first Bundesliga goal during his first loan stint with Bochum during the latter half of the 2022/23 campaign and has been tearing it up since then. In point of fact, it actually shouldn’t serve as a surprise that Keven punched his way upwards in camp. The Weinstadt-native knows how to perform when he’s relegated to obscurity. Never bet against this player when his back is pressed up against the wall. He feeds on adversity.

Han-Noah Massengo, CM

The new signing from Burnley looks to have his midfield starting spot secured. Granted, he didn’t exactly have to fight his way through a crowded field of ultra-talented actors. Wagner was almost too generous giving Tim Breithaupt, Robin Fellhauer, Arne Maier, and Elvis Rexhbecaj extra time in the test fixtures. Perhaps more importantly than how many minutes he logged on the pitch, the Belgian charmed the German media by incorporating German words in his social media, and adopting the name “Hans” as a means of ingratiating himself into his new home.

Massengo obviously knows that he has huge boots to fill following in the footsteps of the great Frank “the tank” Onyeka. The Brentford loanee proved to be a true “box-to-box” beast. Thus far, what one has seen of Massengo off the pitch strongly suggests he can replicate Onyeka’s play. Off the pitch, he happens to be just one damed cool dud. No German can refuse a player who posts updates on his German tutoring and compares Sandro Wagner to Vincent Kompany. One looks forward to writing plenty of colorful stories about Massengo this season.

Steve Mounie, CF

Last year’s total transfer flop grabbed a brace in the closed door exhibition against Pisa and scored a hat trick in the second “creampuff” friendly against FC Memmingen. The heavily-capped Benin international seems prepared to shake off his disappointing first season (one goal in 16 league appearances) and once again reach the heights he did for Montpelier, Brest, and Huddersfield town. Wagner handed him extra minutes in the friendlies due to the fact that Samuel Essende will miss the initial three Bundesliga fixtures due to suspension.

It’s not an entirely bad idea to give the 30-year-old a “mulligan” when it comes to his inaugural FCA season. Mounie missed most of last year’s camp for personal reasons and struggled with injury throughout the year. In Wagner’s new system, Mounie can surely benefit from the shorter crosses of the inwardly deployed buttressing support attackers. This year, it could prove the case that Mounie overtakes Essende provided he makes the best use of his time as the number two striker behind Philipp Tietz.

Losers from camp, Augsburg

Elias Saad, LW

The new summer signing from St. Pauli failed to take advantage of an injury to Alexis Claude Maurice. This was in large part due to the fact that the Tunisian international was hampered by injury himself. Saad experienced similar poor luck whilst representing the Kiezkicker last season. We somehow always find this highly talented attacker’s chance to make more of a name for himself deferred. If Saad can’t keep fit, he may find himself permanently supplanted by the likes of Mert Kömür or even Yusuf Kabadayi. Germans certainly feel for our old Futsal representative.

Henri Koudossou, LWB

How much more developmental playing practice does a 25-year-old “prospect” need? Sigh. Evidently still more. News that Koudossou got loaned out again didn’t quite take with some of us. Why is an exciting young German prospect headed back to the 2. Bundesliga while Mads Pedersen remains on the roster? Oh well. Sometimes one simply must defer to the opinion of the experts. It could be the case that 18-year-old left-back Oliver Sorg may be in for a test. Sorg managed to score a goal in one of the RWE friendlies.

Maximilian Bauer, CB

Bauer – together with his fellow returning 1. FC Kaiserslautern loanee Tim Breithaupt – have no real future at the club. Wagner gave them both minutes in the double-headers. The pair actually didn’t look bad in the second RWE match. Breithaupt still has no way past Arne Maier and Elvis Rexhbecaj in midfield, neither of whom cannot be loaned out as they sit on expiring contracts. The FCA trainer at least tested Breithaupt out in the back-three. Ostensibly, the result of that concerns the fact that Bauer has another player ahead of him.

Tactical scout, Augsburg

Here – as was the case with Bremen – we’ll project a lineup for the opening round Pokal fixture against Hallerscher FC. The East German opponents enter their cup tie having won their first three matches of the Regionalliga Ost campaign. Despite this, there’s no real reason for Wagner to chance it with either Saad, Claude Maurice, or skipper Gouweleeuw. Some slight reshuffling with the injured actors replaced and we’re set.

Lineup—FC Augsburg (Projected)

It might be the case that we see Yussuf Kabadayi start over Maier up top. Another young prospect, January pickup Aiman Dardari, makes a strong case for the XI as well. Dardari, like Sorg, scored a goal in one of the pre-season friendlies. Sorg could start above Giannoulis if the latter isn’t fully fit. Breithaupt can also take the place of Gouweleeuw in the back-three, or start in midfield while Kristijian Jakic moves back. One ultimately trusts Wagner with all the options. The Era should get off to a solid start.

Ahem.

“Hans” Massengo on the tactics board?

Give the writer time.

It’s coming.

GGFN | Peter Weis