Bundesliga Tactics Check | FC St. Pauli | OneFootball

In our next Get German Football News Bundesliga Tactics Check, it’s time to have a look-in at FC St. Pauli. Alexander Blessin’s Kiezkicker have proven quite the breath of fresh air thus far in this young season. A team that struggled mightily to score goals last year currently averages over two tallies per match. Seven points from three league fixtures currently leave these Hanseaten fourth place in the Bundesliga table. What’s the story here? Can this magic be sustained?

Though it remains very early in the season, it’s fair to say that Blessin’s Buccaneers haven’t furnished anything close to a disappointing performance since we last checked in with them after the Pokal opener. The dramatic 3-3 home draw against Dortmund at the Millerntor was followed up by the 0-2 “derby delight” victory over Hamburger SV at the Volksparkstadion. A 2-1 home win over FC Augsburg on Sunday keeps this sailing high and hot.

The Augsburg-St. Pauli fixture this past weekend supplied those interested in Bundesliga football with plenty of talking points. With Augsburg having already received their latest detailed tactics check, we’ll follow the Jolly Roger north to Hamburg and try to assess just how long this pirate ship can keep afloat. Yes, the author acknowledges the preponderance of references here is getting grating yet again. Let’s talk football.

Interesting Developments, St. Pauli

Danel Sinani fits into the puzzle

The last St. Pauli section expressed absolutely no confidence that Danel Sinani would factor into Blessin’s regular season plans. How could this have honestly been foreseen? The Luxembourg international featured very sparingly as a starter until Blessin finally reworked his system around match-day 25. Sinani got off to a decent start as a distributor/director behind the two-striker-set before tanking hard at the end of the season. Looking back, a lot of that may have been related to the fact that Blessin often played a back seven that left the 28-year-old stranded in midfield.

In any event, Sinani plays absolutely lights-out at the moment. The former Norwich professional rakes in both the official scorer points and the unofficial “brownie points”. The set-piece stunner that took the Augsburg match caps a run of three fixtures in which Sinani received top marks in virtually all German press sources. Again, when one looks back, most German football pundits should have predicted this. The top-notch ten often served as the “diamond in the rough” during multiple wretched eye-sore St. Pauli fixtures last year. Not unforeseeable that he’d do even better with better talent in front of him.

The Andreas Hountondji Show

This phenomenon was correctly predicted. Even before pre-season primer time, Hountondji’s signing this summer generated plenty of excitement. The 23-year-old’s three Bundesliga goals through three match-days is indeed a new St. Pauli club record. Having observed Hountondji’s explosive potential, one can now hardly wait for the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations; at which this attacker will feature alongside Benin national team captain Steve Mounié. For now, it’s great fun watching Hountondji and his fellow new summer addition Mathias Pereira Lage work together up front. Wonderful duo, this!

Possession bossers

The Kiezkicker managed to retain a slight edge against Dortmund in terms of possession in the opening match. Something like that rarely occurs against BVB. Blessin’s squad maintained midfield dominance throughout in the total mismatch that was the Hamburg derby and generated a highly impressive 57-43 split in the Augsburg match. Most of this stems from the marvelous midfield duo of new signing Joel Chima Fujita and returning American James Sands. This pair synchronize their forward movements as if they’ve been playing together for years. Captain Jackson Irvine might not find a way back into the XI!

Excellent personnel depth

Having a healthy XI that clicks early always helps, but (as we’ll cover in a bit greater depth below) Blessin has almost perfect straight-arrow plug-ins should certain players succumb to injury. Credit sporting director Andreas Bornemann for putting together a balanced squad specifically designed to avoid the pitfalls of last season. The blockbuster signing of Magdeburg striker Martijn Kaars counted as quite the coup. Bornemann and the administrative team also skillfully ensured that, transfer balance wise, smart summer sales like that of Philipp Treu ensured that the club wasn’t over leveraged.

Tactics Check, St. Pauli

We’ve far fewer graphics in this section as Blessin has been rolling out the exact same XI since the Pokal Round. No reason to change what works perfectly well. The tight battle for the starting right wingback slot between Arkadiusz Pyrka and Manolis Saliakis looks to rage on for quite some time, with Blessin often giving the discontented Greek more meaningful minutes late in matches in order to help him prove his case. Late transfer window addition Kaars receives his relief minutes as well whilst Blessin tries to effectively manage Hountondji’s workload.

Lineup—St. Pauli (Matches 1-3)

Wingbacks Pyrka and Louis Oppie have had their ups-and-downs since an especially impressive dual debut on against Dortmund on match-day one. Both actually struggled to keep the approach play coherent for much of the Augsburg match and ultimately couldn’t nail down their rhythm. It was definitely an inelegant and several key actors. One loved the fight in the duels the back-three, but there were far too many inaccuracies in the back-builds. Play improved slightly after the break.

Lineup—St. Pauli (46th minute)

Kaars worked more as a service striker while the back-three flattened out. This led to Pereira Lage getting some solid looks in and it shouldn’t be long before the Portuguese Frenchman nets his first Bundesliga goal. Instead, it was Sinani’s turn to again grab the glory with a set-piece stunner (deflected slightly of Augsburg’s Cedric Zesiger) in the 78th. Call it an “ugly win” if one must, but – as we all know – those points count just as much as the others.

Upcoming fixtures and assessment, St. Pauli

Friday, September 19th

VfB Stuttgart (A) 20:30

Saturday, September 27th

Bayer 04 Leverkusen (H) 15:30

Saturday, October 4th

Werder Bremen (A) 15:30

A very tough fixture list in the coming weeks might see the “Boys in Brown” tumble back down to earth somewhat before the next international break. Despite all of their early stumbles, Stuttgart away poses quite the challenge. The match against totally unpredictable Leverkusen at the Millerntor in a couple of weeks’ time counts as one to circle. Now that Bremen are back in form, there isn’t a guaranteed three points on this docket.

St. Pauli’s first loss of the season will most definitely come soon. Slipping out of the spotlight into some more mid table obscurity doesn’t automatically count as a disastrous development for this club either. Many of the new arrivals are due for some adversity and it’s always a positive thing if a second-year top flight team traverses it early. No need for European dreams this season. Surviving last year served as “dream come true” enough for them.

GGFN | Peter Weis