Hello, we’re back in Vienna for Frank Athlete’s and First Vienna’s first season back in the top flight - the Austrian Bundesliga. Promotion probably came a season too soon for Frank and his side, but they’ll attempt to give a good account of themselves and try to stay up if they can. Let’s see how it unfolded…
Season Summary
Season: 2024/25
Division: Austrian Bundesliga
Expectations: Attempt to avoid relegation
Squad Changes
Transfers in: Mick Gudra (AMC), TSV Steinbach (€0); Johannes Manske (ST), SV Meppen (€0); Tobias Schützenauer (GK), SC Austria Lustenau Jun. (€0); Iron Gomis (MC), Regensburg (Loan)
Youth promotions: None
Added to loan list: Tobias Quiroga (AMC)
Transfers out: Jonathan Breinl (DL), FC Wacker Innsbruck (€175K)
Preseason
Bizarrely, despite our promotion, a number of our players opted to leave at the end of their contracts and so not only were we in a situation of needing to strengthen the first eleven, we were also now needing to fill out the squad as well. The most notable departure was Andreas Lukse, who even at 36 years old, was still capable of being a top division goal keeper. Evidently he decided to retire from playing and fancied himself as a Manager, although no one has been willing to test his skillset just yet. In came Schützenauer to take the number 1 shirt, and he was swiftly joined by Johannes Manske who would operate as an Advanced Forward, and Mick Gudra who would play through the middle as an Advanced Playmaker.
Our central midfield didn’t have much depth but with budget running low, we turned to the loan market. Iron Gomis joins as a CM but can fill in as AP when needed. We didn’t have any youngsters ready to take the step up but with Ramic, Paric and Abazovic all still developing, we had plenty to work with.
Tactically, Frank continued with the 4-2-4 set up with the mentality set to Cautious. This had worked well when in another life, Frank had led an underdog Fortuna Dusseldorf side to glory in the German Bundesliga. Hopefully the tactic would hold here as well.
League Performance
The mission this season is just to survive so we’re not too worried about bad results, provided we can steal a few wins against our fellow strugglers. The media had predicted a 12th place finish and we were heavy favourites to return to the second division come seasons end.
Despite some optimism in the dressing room, our first few results suggested that this task might be too big to handle after all. Two of the teams we played in our opening five were sides that were expected to struggle alongside us. These were Lustenau and Tirol, and with home advantage in both games we thought this would be a great place to get some points on the board.
Errr… no.
Defeat after defeat put the team in peril, and even with Frank’s experience of managing struggling sides, there seemed to be nothing that would stop our demise. The saving grace was the fact that everyone (except myabe Frank) had foreseen this, and so expectations were already as low as they could be. There were no calls for him to get the sack, no votes of confidence from the board, just a quiet acceptance that this was all too much for us.
Tactical tweaks, changes to personnel, switching instructions - nothing seemed to make a difference. After fifteen (yes, 15!) straight losses and umpteen adjustments to our tactic, it was time to start again.
Many of the goals we conceded were either from a ball over the top where our central defenders were too slow to catch them, or from crosses into the middle which we couldn’t handle. Frank’s first decision here was to play three at the back with two wingbacks. We would sacrifice our attacking prowess on the flanks for some much needed stability in defence.
The next change was in the central midfield pairing. We needed men behind the ball and so both players were pushed back into the DM strata where we could create a bottleneck for our opposition and prevent them playing through the middle. the AP switched to a BWM so we could be more compact, and the CM was changed to a Segundo Volante. This second role was one Frank hadn’t tried before, but with late runs into the box and a desire to dribble through the middle, the hope was this player could help us transition quickly into a counter attack when the opportunity would arise.
This left three spaces for players in the attacking area. Two up top, one to press and one to get on the end of good chances, and then to support them, an Advanced Playmaker would be the main creative outlet, feeding the front two as much as possible.
In terms of instructions, the idea here is to press the opposition, steal the ball and counter quickly. On the defensive, the only obvious opportunties for the other team are to try a ball over the top which we hope our Libero will cut out, or use the pockets behind the wing backs so they can cross, but with so many players waiting in the middle, I’d like to think the odds would be in our favour to win the header and clear.
As any tactical expert will know, it takes a few games for the players to become familiar with the approach and so expecting an immediate improvement would be folly. Imagine our shock then, when away at Lustenau we managed a 0-0 draw! Our first points this season, and our first clean sheet as well. The next two matches were against FK Austria Vienna and RB Salzburg and so of course, normal service was resumed, but we did look more resiliant despite defeat. Tirol were our next opponents and here we claimed a famous victory which we followed with a home draw against Wolfsberger.
By January, we were in need of some re-enforcements. Our squad was young an inexperienced and so some wiser heads were needed to help steer us up the table. We invested heavily in defence, bringing in Englishmen Kyle Bartley and Marc Roberts on free transfers. Both were 33 years old and brought some physical attributes and technical ability to our struggling defence. Manuba would bring some youth and energy to the wing back role, as well as a “big club” mentality, joining on loan from Bayern Munich.
The final addition was to bring in the ageing Simone Zaza. We needed someone with a great work ethic to master the Pressing Forward role and Zaza really fit the bill. At 33 as well, he would add some much needed experience up top too.
With the Transfer Window now shut, attention returned to the league and with just a few games left of the normal season, we secured another win and another draw to take our tally to 9 points. We were still in 12th place and 8 points adrift, but we’d proven that we could win games which was key.
The next stage of the season sees the league split into the Championship Group (contested by the top six teams) and the Relegation Group (contested by the bottom six teams). Crucially, everyone’s points tally was halved for this part of the season. Suddenly our 8 point gap from safety was only 5 points which somehow felt more manageable. Eight of our nine points had come against teams in the Relegation Group so surely it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that we could notch up a few more wins in the process?
We started with a win, a loss and a draw which kept us rooted to the bottom of the table, yet we’d closed the gap significatly on Tirol who hadn’t been able to find a win yet and who were struggling under the weight of fixtures as a result of their prolonged run in the Europa League. Our next game was a win away at Altach and we followed it with another win away at Lustenau - our first consecutive victories this season. This also dragged First out of the relgation spot for the first time this year, and gave a glimmer of hope that survival really could be on the cards.
A win at home to Tirol put us three points ahead of them, but back to back defeats in the next two matches allowed them to keep within two points of us heading into the final game of the season. Only a win would do, and this was proved essential when Tirol ground out a 1-0 victory to put the ball firmly in our court.
Our response? A resounding 4-0 win over Lustenau a place in the Austrian Bundesliga for next season!!!
Cup Performance
Our run in the ÖFB Cup was shortlived once again with the side exiting in the Second Round for the second year in a row, this time at the hands of Sturm Graz.
Conclusion
What an incredible end to the season! From starting out with 15 straight defeats to securing our safety on the final day, it really was a rollercoaster of a ride.
There’s a lot of work to do to make sure we’re not in this position next year, but with the players we brought in in January opting to stay for at least another year, I think we’re starting from a much better position now. Frank’s also been researching tactical changes ahead of next season and has been inspired by a fellow manager, CultofFM, who’s 3-4-3 system is very similar to the one First Vienna have been using, but is potentially more balanced in terms of the roles deployed. Preseason will tell whether a few extra tweaks to our own set-up might help us shore things up further.
Competition Overview
Austrian Bundesliga
Expectation: 12th
Actual: 11th
Summary: We survived, against all the odds. An incredible achievement really, given the gulf in class between us and our opponents!
Best moment: That first point on the board was such a relief, especially since it came from a change to the tactoc that almost had an immediate impact.
Low moment: Pick any of the first fifteen games! They were all low, and you start to question whether you have any idea what you’re doing.
ÖFB Cup
Expectation: Second Round
Actual: Second Round
Summary: Another early exit. Annoying that for both rounds we were away, maybe a home tie might give us a slight advtantage.
Best moment: We won in the first round, and since it was ourt first competitive game of the season we were blissfully unaware of the woe that would follow. Happier times!
Low moment: Defeated again, albeit during a run of the worst league form I’ve seen of any time!
Finances
I had thought that promotion might mean a bigger income through prize money, TV rights and sponsorship, and early signs suggested this might be the case. The larger spike towards the right hand side is the money coming in in the Summer as a result of our first division status.
However, it turns out, that since no one gave us a hope in hell of survival, we weren’t able to capitailse on any other potential increases to revenue streams this year. We’re still footing the bill for the undersoil heating that the league made us install as well so we are in real trouble at the moment.
In twelve months we’ve more than doubled our debt and no doubt this will start to impact us in terms of transfer budget for next season. I haven’t been able to secure anyone on long term contracts either so trying to sell players for profit is tough as well.
Our only hope is to continue to manage costs best we can and then to try and establish ourselves as a top flight side. Eventually, qualifying for European football will at least start to bring in extra monty but that is surely 3-4 seasons away at this point.
End Credits
Thanks for reading this update, I really hope you enjoyed it. You’ll find more updates from me, as well as blogs from some other fantastic writers at CoffeehouseFM so make sure you check them out. Feel free to leave a comment below, or you can message me @fm_athlete if you feel like getting in touch. Special thanks to FM Rensie for the use of his Rensie skin in FM23.
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