The second half of the season starts in Austria this week after a two-month pause over the winter.
Sturm Graz are sitting at the top of the Bundesliga with a three-point lead over Austria Wien, their closest challengers.
Following their failure to reach the knockout phase in the UEFA Champions League and an ÖFB-Cup quarterfinal exit at the hands of the aforementioned Austria Wien last weekend, winning a second consecutive league title is now the sole priority for the club this campaign.
It would be only the second time in club history that Sturm would be Austrias back-to-back champions, having done so in 1998 and 1999 under the tutelage of the late Ivica Osim.
While they remain the favourites to retain the crown they claimed last year, given the mighty struggles of usual powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg this term, they face a couple of challenges following the winter transfer window, during which they lost two key players who moved abroad.
One of which was a player who had only arrived permanently from Arsenal in the summer following an impressive loan spell last spring, the Austrian Bundesligas current top scorer, Mika Biereth, who has since moved on to Monaco, where hes already hit the ground running with four goals in as many games.
The other is their standard Bosnian international full-back, Jusuf Gazibegović.
He was a regular fixture in the side during his four-and-a-half-year spell at Liebenauer Stadium and moved north to German Bundesliga hopefuls 1. FC Köln.
Interestingly, Sturm didnt make much of a splash in the market to find replacements for these two important cogs in their past years success.
They only brought in a left-back from Marseilles youth system and a loanee striker who was on the fringes at Bristol City.
With a few potential options already in-house at the club, its possible that Sturm already felt they had their replacements lined up even before they walked out the door this past January, which is what well assess in this article.
This tactical and data analysis will examine how Sturm Graz may replace their departing right-back and centre-forward starters in the second half of this season as they seek to retain their Bundesliga title.
Mika Biereth Replacement (Centre-Forward)
Before we look at the potential options to lead the line in Sturms attack this spring, lets look at the radar map of the outgoing Danish striker to get an idea of what kind of profile he was and what he brought to their offence.
Mika Biereth Radar Map
Biereths attacking contributions were quite outstanding in the first part of the season.
He ranked in the top 10 percentile in opposition penalty area touches and expected and actual goal contributions per 90 minutes.
He struck eleven times in sixteen league games to become the l
