Last season was St. Pauli‘s first in the German Bundesliga in over a decade, and they performed pretty well.
They lost the famous Fabian Hürzeler before the season started and had one of the cheapest squads in the league.
Nevertheless, under the leadership of new coach Alexander Blessin, St. Pauli successfully finished 15th.
Their journey to success was also pretty remarkable.
St. Pauli got off to a bad start due to Blessin’s intention to make the team play in his preferred pressing style, losing the first three games.
However, Blessin gradually changed his approach.
He encouraged St. Pauli to play more patiently in the out-of-possession phase, preferring to wait for the opponent with a deep and compact defence rather than trying to jump and press as before.
The results were decent: St. Pauli finished as the second-best team in terms of goals conceded, behind only Bayern Munich.
They indeed had one of the best defences in the league last season.
This defensive strength is enough to help them stay in the league, even though they are one of the worst offensively.
The question remains: can they continue to survive with the same style of play in the competitive Bundesliga?
St. Pauli Budget-Friendly Transfer Strategy
St. Pauli will enter the season having lost three key attacking players.
Firstly, top scorer Morgan Guilavogui returned to France after RC Lens activated his release clause, leaving St. Pauli without their leading goalscorer from last season.
Secondly, they lost Elias Saad, a key attacker who contributed five goals last season and was also very influential during their promotion run.
Lastly, they lost Johannes Eggestein, who also played a key role in their promotion and contributed three goals and five assists last season despite playing fewer minutes in the second half.
Losing three players who made decent goal contributions (in the context of St. Pauli) is indeed hurtful.
St. Pauli have been trying to address this by signing new attackers.
However, as they don’t have a huge budget this summer, the attackers they have signed are not of star calibre.
Yes, they signed Mathias Pereira Lage, who played in the UEFA Champions League with Brest last season, but only scored four goals in all competitions in 2024/2025.
Eight assists sounds promising, but the Bundesliga is tougher and more competitive than that.
St. Pauli also signed Andréas Hountondji on loan from the Premier League‘s Burnley, but he only scored four goals and provided one assist in 18 appearances in the Belgian First Division A last season.
Meanwhile, Ricky-Jade Jones, who scored 11 goals for Peterborough United in EFL League One last season, lacks experience at this level.
There’s a chance that St. Pauli will sign another attacker, but if not, they need to ensure that these three integrate well into their system to perform well in the Bundesliga.
St. Pauli also lost midfielder Carlo Boukhalfa this summer, and interestingly, they filled the void by signing Japanese international Joel Chima Fujita, who, if all the add-ons are achieved, will break the club’s transfer record.
Meanwhile, the loan of New York City midfielder James Sands has been extended until the end of next season to provide additional midfield depth.
The club also lost left wing-back Phillip Treu to SC Freiburg and bought Arminia Bielefeld‘s Louis Oppie to replace him.
Jannik Robatsch and Arkadiusz Pyrka were also signed to strengthen the defence.
St. Pauli lack the financial resources to spend money in the transfer market, so they usually try to outsmart their competitors by signing cheap or potentially valuable players from non-top leagues.
So, with this limited transfer budget and one of the cheapest squads in the league, will St. Pauli be able to maintain their position in the Bundesliga next season?
If so, which of last season’s strategies does Blessin need to keep, and which aspects do they need to work on in order to compete?
St. Pauli Defensive Energy
St. Pauli successfully avoided relegation next season because they changed their approach when not in possession, moving from an aggressive pressing game to a low block, compact defence.
However, it’s not just about playing in a low block and letting the opponent attack while minimising spaces.
St. Pauli play deep with calculation.
They are adept at defensive duels, and last season, they were second best only to Bayern Munich in that respect.
Their defenders are really good at reading the game and momentum when it comes to duels against the opponent‘s attacker.
St. Pauli also know how to build momentum in order to block the opponent’s shots.
Last season, no other Bundesliga team had a higher percentage of blocked shots.
Their defenders know how to put the opponent’s attacker in an uncomfortable position when taking shots, and they know how to close the space properly.
Under Blessin’s tactics, St. Pauli players have a good understanding of the momentum involved in defensive actions such as duels and blocks.
As they generally lack pacey defenders, this understanding of momentum helped them survive last season.
Next season, with most of their key defenders still in the squad (except Treu), St. Pauli are expected to maintain their strong defensive performance.
They will most likely continue to use the 5-4-1 shape in the out-of-possession phase, as the idea of blocking the central area and forcing the opponent to attack wide also helps to reduce the danger of the opponent’s attack.
However, the question remains about how to handle counterattacks better.
Last season, they conceded 10 goals on the counter—the most in the Bundesliga.
As mentioned, St. Pauli don’t have many pacey defenders, so they need to rely on their rest defence when facing counters.
They need to work on this next season.
Last season, St. Pauli had enough players to defend against the counters.
However, their players intended to jump on the opponent with the ball, which easily created disorganisation and space for the opponent to exploit.
Engaging early in the counter is a good idea as it enables them to stop the opponent’s attack more quickly.
However, in the context of St. Pauli, this is a bit tricky since they could easily be exploited by pacey attackers.
Therefore, Blessin needs to work on this.
He could emphasise the importance of covering more space first to keep the defensive line organised, especially when St. Pauli only had three or two players at the back when facing the counters.
If last season’s defensive masterclass continues and Blessin improves the structure and approach to counterattacks, St. Pauli could once again be a solid Bundesliga defensive team.
St. Pauli Pressing Approach
At the start of last season, St. Pauli mostly adopted a man-to-man pressing approach.
However, they then changed to a more zonal and hybrid approach.
The intensity and height of their pressing also decreased as they became more patient and adopted a deeper position, particularly against stronger teams.
However, against teams at the same level, a man-to-man approach could be useful for creating scoring opportunities.
This is because mid-low-level teams usually don’t have many players who can press and help with the build-up under pressure.
Therefore, St. Pauli can exploit this situation to their advantage.
Firstly, they could force the opponent to play directly with long balls, which would help them to easily win the ball back.
Secondly, they could try to win the ball back as quickly as possible through pressing.
Last season, in games such as the one against Hoffenheim at Millerntor, St. Pauli demonstrated their ability to create goals from situations where they stole the ball from the opponent’s build-up due to pressing.
Therefore, Blessin could adopt this approach when facing a team like Hoffenheim.
This is especially true since St. Pauli still have enough attacking players to launch quick counterattacks when they successfully steal the ball in the opponent’s third.
St. Pauli Attacking Phase
In terms of scoring goals, St. Pauli were the worst team in the Bundesliga last season, only managing to score 28 times.
They also had the lowest expected goals (xG) with 36.75, and indeed underperformed their xG.
However, they are not the worst in terms of key passes.
They averaged 2.52 per 90 minutes, with three teams below them in this regard.
They also entered the final third via passes more than five other teams did per 90 minutes last season.
Furthermore, three teams touched the ball less in the penalty area than St. Pauli per 90 minutes.
In short, St. Pauli had no problem progressing the ball to the final third or the penalty area, nor in creating shots via passes.
The problem was what happened after that.
It’s clear that they have a problem with finishing, as they significantly underperformed their xG.
However, finishing also depends on the quality of the players.
Since St. Pauli’s squad will be largely unchanged next season, addressing this issue if it relies solely on the players will be difficult.
Therefore, Blessin needs to find solutions.
Firstly, he could improve his team’s shooting selection.
Last season, St. Pauli took too many shots from outside the box, with 40% of their shots coming from that area.
They should reduce this figure, as good attacking teams only shoot from outside the box about 30% of the time.
Secondly, Blessin needs to help his players make better decisions about when to shoot, because last season, St. Pauli players often took bad shots.
These situations occur when they are surrounded by opponents or in dense areas.
As a result, their shots were easily blocked.
Last season, 32% of St. Pauli’s shots were blocked by opponents.
Meanwhile, similar-level teams that finished above them, such as Augsburg or Union Berlin, had a percentage below 30%.
If St. Pauli want to be more clinical than last season and keep competing in the Bundesliga, they need to improve their shot selection.
Blessin and his team have shown that they have the potential to solve this problem.
Last season, St. Pauli often created chances and goals thanks to their smart off-the-ball movement.
Off-the-ball runs towards the opponent’s box, especially when five or six players do this, could help create space, either by moving the opponent’s defensive line deeper or by creating a dilemma for them: do they focus on the ball or the nearby players?
Having four, five or six players constantly moving around in the final third could also make it easier for them to find targets and create space to attack, thus helping them to create better scoring opportunities closer to the danger areas.
St. Pauli Lineup Dilemma Towards Next Season
There are a few interesting points to highlight regarding St. Pauli’s lineup for next season.
Firstly, there is the question of whether Blessin will continue to use a false nine.
Last season, he used Danel Sinani as the main central forward but as a false nine.
Sinani is not the kind of striker who constantly attacks or stays in the penalty box, but he drops deep to receive the ball and continue the team’s attack, opening space for the winger to run into the central area.
This system worked well, not only because Sinani thrived, but also because the entire St. Pauli attack became more mobile and harder to predict.
Since St. Pauli haven’t signed a proper number nine yet, it makes sense for Blessin to keep the same system.
Their new attacking players have pace and can run from the wings into the centre.
Therefore, having a central forward who can open up space for them would be beneficial.
Secondly, the question is which position Eric Smith will play.
In the first half of last season, he played as a centre-back who could move forward to play in the number six position during the build-up phase, or generally when St. Pauli had possession of the ball.
In the second half of the season, when many of the team’s defenders were injured, he played in midfield as a number six.
Smith’s good vision and passing ability solved the problem of their ball progression and creativity in the midfield area.
St. Pauli may already have signed Fujita, and they have also extended Sands’ loan.
However, Smith struggled against pacey attackers when playing centre-back.
Therefore, the best solution would be to assess the squad situation.
If all of St. Pauli’s centre-backs are fit, Smith could play as a central midfielder alongside Fujita or Sands.
However, if the centre-back position still requires an additional player, Smith could return to play there.
This would be especially useful when captain Jackson Irvine returns from injury and the midfield at St. Pauli becomes more crowded.
In general, if everyone is fit, St. Pauli will have decent depth in defence and midfield to compete in the Bundesliga.
They just need to sign a Bundesliga-level attacker to complete their lineup from back to front.
Conclusion
St. Pauli are entering the new Bundesliga season with one of the cheapest squads in the league.
Competing in a league where you are one of the poorest is usually very challenging.
The Premier League has already demonstrated this over the last few seasons, with newly promoted clubs unable to stay up due to the size of the gap.
Last season, Bundesliga newcomers Holstein Kiel were also relegated.
However, St. Pauli successfully avoided the drop thanks to Blessin’s defensive tactics and some players stepping up to perform really well.
If Blessin wants to repeat the same success next season, he needs to maintain his tactics and make them even more effective.
Therefore, he needs to address issues such as counterattacking, organising the pressing approach and finding solutions to improve clinical finishing.
Another signing could help, but the St. Pauli squad mostly contains players with experience at the required level who know how to fight and compete.
If all goes well for them again, they might stay in the Bundesliga longer than many expected.
