Team Focus: Augsburg Making Late Claim for Survival

FC Augsburg were a surprise addition to the Bundesliga just under a year ago when they secured the second promotion place in the Second Division ahead of VfL Bochum thanks to an incredible goal-difference.

The Bavarians had never participated in the top-flight before this season and they finished last season nine points behind Hertha BSC with a 17-goal difference over Bochum, who eventually lost out to Borussia M’Gladbach in the promotion/relegation play-off.

Jos Luhukay’s men lost just seven matches in the season with a superb defensive record of 27 goals conceded, which was joint-lowest in 2.Bundesliga over the 34 matches in 2010/11.

48-year-old Luhukay has been involved in German football since 2000 with a two-year spell at KFC Uerdingen before a three-year stint at Cologne in various roles. He continued his coaching career with both SC Paderborn and Borussia Monchengladbach before being appointed the FC Augsburg head coach in 2009.

The Dutch coach has had to alter his system between the two divisions with Augsburg being handed a large wake-up call in the hinrunde (first half of the season) with Luhukay’s side at the bottom of the Bundesliga on just 15 points and three adrift from survival.

But their improvement in the second-half of the campaign, along with struggling SC Freiburg, has been remarkable and has probably out-done the massive overhaul by Lucien Favre at Borussia-Park over the last 12 months. If you take the form of just the second half of the season, Augsburg would be in the lofty position of 9th and just three points off third-place in the table.

After the return from the winter break, Augsburg lost a crunch bottom-of-the-table clash with Freiburg but have bounced back in superb fashion with 15 points from an available 30 in the ruckrunde. For a team just promoted, their home record at the SGL Arena has been very impressive with only three games lost (Hoffenheim, Leverkusen, FC Bayern) across the season and they have not lost a home match since November.

Jos Luhukay has conducted some astute business in January with South Korean attacking-midfielder Ja-Cheol Koo being one of the most consistent performers in the ruckrunde. In his nine Bundesliga appearances, Koo has scored three goals and contributed one assist, reaching a WhoScored rating of 7.04.

Koo joined from Wolfsburg on loan where he made just seven appearances in the hinrunde and has impressed at Augsburg with a pass completion ratio of 78.4% and an average of 28.8 passes per game in the right-attacker role in the 4-2-3-1 system.

In an attacking sense, Augsburg relied heavily on the good form of Sascha Molders earlier in the season, with the 27-year-old scoring five goals in 28 appearances so far, with another three assists to his name. His WhoScored rating, however, is just 6.42 and he has netted just one goal in the ruckrunde – against Hoffenheim.

Along with the Korean attacker, the three-supporting midfielders have had a big part to play in Luhukay’s system, with 28-year-old Axel Bellinghausen playing a starring role for Augsburg this season. The left-footed midfielder possesses a superb long-range shot and has scored twice and assisted another four goals so far. Augsburg’s 26-year-old Tobias Werner has featured 18 times this season in a similar attacking role with the flair-player assisting two goals and scoring one himself, with a rating of 6.5.

However, over the course of the season the standout performer has been Japanese midfielder Hajime Hosogai, who has been on-loan from Bayer Leverkusen since the winter break of 2010 and will return to the BayArena at the end of the campaign. The 25-year-old is a Japan international with two appearances in the country’s FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying bid.

The midfielder has made 27 appearances this season and he has scored three goals this season. Hosogai has been deployed in the right defensive-midfield role in the system and he has a terrific level of energy and is very strong at breaking up play – he has 2.5 tackles and 1.9 interceptions on average per match this season. He has an 81.4% pass completion ratio from 1000 attempts and an average of 37 passes each game.

At the back, the experience of 35-year-old Simon Jentzsch has been invaluable to Augsburg and the keeper has a WhoScored rating of 6.65. Luhukay’s regular back-line has been very consistent and has shown great solidity in matches against Gladbach (1-0 win) and Dortmund (0-0 draw). The defensive-four is still relatively young with left-back Matthias Ostrzolek (21), Sebastian Langkamp (24), Marcel De Jong (25) and Paul Verhaegh (28).

Augsburg have a less-than favourable run-in towards the end of the season with FC Bayern (A), VfB Stuttgart (H), Wolfsburg (A), Schalke 04 (H), Gladbach (A) and Hamburg SV (H) all to play. The Bavarians have a two-point cushion over Cologne in 16th place but they will need some resilient displays to take points from their last remaining matches this season.