The fourth installment of our 18 Bundesliga tactical previews here on Get German Football News takes us north to the Lower Saxon Autostadt. VfL Wolfsburg seek to get back in the European conversation for the first time in four years under newly installed head-coach Paul Simonis. The VfL administrative duo of Peter Christiansen and Sebastian Schindzielorz aim to erase the pain of the total schizoid eras of previous trainers Niko Kovac and Ralph Hasenhüttl. Christiansen recently lashed out at the tendency of Kovac and Hasenhüttl to over-rotate in a Kicker interview.
Yet again, we witness Wolfsburg management calling for coherence. This phenomenon certainly isn’t new. Before departing for RB Leipzig, front office personnel executive Marcel Schäfer used to hem and haw over the very same thing. Other non 50+1 sides such as RB Leipzig, TSG Hoffenheim, and even Bayer 04 Leverkusen all suffer from this problem. Stricter budgets tend to focus squad planning efforts. Borussia Dortmund even serves as a case in which a fan-owned club can’t get squad balance under control due to larger financial reserves.
Alas, one doesn’t wish to digress too much. Have Christiansen and Schindzielorz built a coherent squad? Sort of. Simonis remained the fourth-choice candidate to take the coaching reins here. The vastly inexperienced trainer has been a bit all over the map in his pre-season squad selections. Simonis appears to have completely forgotten about the potential of some experienced players (such as Aster Vranckx) and valuable prospects (such as David Odogu). Some grace can be given to Simonis and club management due to the fact that this year’s camp proven better than the last few.
There’s still a long way to go.
VfL Wolfsburg
We will give the Wolfsburg front office their due bit of credit in the first section below. A footballing thesis still lacks, but some of the goings-on at Germany’s green company team count as positive. The roster contains plenty of talent and it’s even conceivable that the team might overachieve for a time once the league campaign gets rolling. The schedule might be soft enough to facilitate a start similar to the one Wolfsburg experienced the last time they had a Dutch trainer in place. Of course, we all recall how the 2021 Mark van Bommel Era ended. That bit of history might repeat as well.
Major personnel shifts, Wolfsburg
Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = -€28.15 million
The German Wolves – obviously not lacking financing – have nevertheless still been rather parsimonious with the purse-strings this summer. Wolfsburg have backed off big money purchases in many instances. Sheffield United’s Vinicius Souza served as the big summer splurge. Over the last few weeks, club management has abandoned negotiations whenever feeling squeezed for extra cash by clubs such as Norwich City (Josh Sargent), Rayo Vallecano (Andrei Rațiu), and US Leece (Nikola Krstovic). By no means a “normal club”, the VWers are at least trying to behave like one this year. Kudos to them.
Christiansen and Schindzielorz have done well to reduce squad size by allowing strikers Kevin Behrens, Bartosz Bialek, and Lukas Nmecha to depart on frees while securing loan outs for Nicolas Cozza, Bartol Franjic, and Jakub Kaminski. A little bit of money has been secured via the sales of central defenders Cedric Zesiger and Sebastiaan Bornauw. Strikers Jonas Wind and Mohamed Amoura remain on the block. The sale of these two can easily swing the summer transfer balance back into the block. Securing the services of Jesper Lindstrøm for a small loan fee counts as one of the best deals of the summer.
Notes from camp, Wolfsburg
The northern Autostädter participated in the rather laissez-faire VW Cup before contesting a few light scrimmages and an East German tour. Matters got more serious when Simonis’ team paid a visit to Magdeburg in late July. Warm-ups against Espanyol Barcelona and Feyenoord Rotterdam followed. It was then off to England’s south coast for a double-header against Brighton. Both of the twin-bill exhibitions against the Premier League outfit ended in losses. Wolfsburg were spared additional blushes in Holland when the game against Feyenoord was broken off due to medical emergency in the stands. The team was trailing 0-4.
The new trainer has mostly stuck to a 4-2-3-1 formation, rotating plenty on the top two attacking axes. A 3-5-2 constellation in a friendly against Dynamo Dresden produced by far the best results. Bence Dardai worked as a ten behind the double-striker-set of Jonas Wind and Vaclav Cerny. Patrick Wimmer and Andreas Skov Olsen rotated heavily on the wings whilst Maximilian Arnold and Joakim Maehle ran the midfield. This produced goals from both strikers before the half-hour-mark was reached. Brazilian left-back Rogerio is the only VfL player to have scored in the final four test fixtures.
Winners from camp, Wolfsburg
Dzenan Pejcinovic, LS
This finally looks to be the year for the young German-Montenegrin. Plucked from the Augsburg youth ranks for €1.25m in the summer of 2022, Pejcinovic made just one brief 10-minute relief appearance during the 2022/23 Bundesliga campaign. This was followed by four brief relief shifts during the 2023/24 season. The now 20-year-old spent the entirety of last year on loan with Fortuna Düsseldorf in the German second division. He scored five 2. Bundesliga goals for Daniel Thioune’s Flingeraner in the 2024/25 2. Bundesliga season.
Simonis is on record as stating that he genuinely likes what he sees from Pejcinovic. Shorty after he received the vote-of-confidence from his coach, the youngster grabbed a brace in the friendly win over Magdeburg. The former Bayern Munich academy product scored both the 5th-minute opener and the 85th-minute winner in the 4-3 victory over the East German outfit. Unfortunately, he’s been rather ineffective in his three deployments since. A late break in momentum notwithstanding, it’s been a good camp for this prospect.
Vaclav Cerny, RW
Cerny has functioned well as a ten, a nine, and a straight winger in the test fixtures. Sometimes the Czech international even worked deep as a pseudo right back. Cerny worked especially well in concert with Pejcinovic during the Magdeburg friendly. Simonis unexpectedly inherits a true “swiss-army-knife” player in the form of the returning loanee, who is most assuredly remaining with his German parent club now. With Cerny and Dardai suddenly ahead of him on the depth chart, it may actually be Lovro Majer who ends up being shipped out at present.
Kilian Fischer, RB
The 24-year-old benefited immensely from his club’s failure to sign a new right-back. Fischer easily solidified his newfound hold on the starting slot due to the fact that no one else was around to compete with him. The former Germany U21 international also looked very solid in the back-three during the above-mentioned Dresden match. Denis Vavro, Mathys Angely, and Aaron Zehnter have taken their turns at right-back whenever Fischer needed a rest. Naturally, those players present no real challenge to a player who made 36 competitive appearances for his team last season.
Losers from camp, Wolfsburg
Moritz Jenz, CB
Simply stated, it’s been a rough four months for the Berlin native. The very popular Jenz did reasonably well during his loan stint with Mainz. Virtually all of us German football watchers thought the Rheinhessen would make a push to sign him permanently. For whatever reason, Mainz ended up shipping him back to his parent club, at which he enjoys no real prospects of playing. The 26-year-old barely featured at all during the pre-season. Only rumored exit links surrounding Konstantinos Koulierakis can save him now.
Such a shame to see this defender fail to gain traction at yet another club in his native country. Perhaps the Volkswagen town simply never constituted the right fit for Moritz “Mercedes” Jenz. Thankfully, with his Wolfsburg contract set to expire in 2027, another loan out is an option. Jenz is presently being linked with a move to the Serie A. Simonis doesn’t have any use for him. Despite the fact that he can play as a right-back, the VfL trainer didn’t even give him an audition to serve as Fischer’s back-up.
Aaron Zehnter, LB
The highly-touted summer signing was supposed to, at the very least, easily displace Brazilian veteran Rogerio on the left-hand-side. Zehnter hasn’t managed this. Moreover, the fact that Joakim Maehle and Yannick Gerhardt can play left-back have diminished the 20-year-old’s playing prospects even further. Die Wölfe had to fight off plenty of competitors for the Germany U19 international’s services and Zehnter himself decided on Wolfsburg based on the fact that they offered him ideal circumstances to continue his development.
Early as it may be, one gets that sense that there’s been a big misunderstanding between player and club. The 2. Bundesliga “assist-meister” (12 assists for Paderborn last year) may not be ready for the next level just yet. Plenty of Bundesliga watchers thought Zehnter’s classification as a “FlankenGott” (“lord of crosses”) was fairly hyperbolic anyway. Zehnter could nevertheless still garner some minutes higher up on the left wing; a position at which Simonis still requires plenty of help.
Kevin Paredes, LW
The USMNT attacker’s new foot surgery leaves one with little else to add here. Just plain sad. Paredes probably would have gotten a chance to earn some regular playing time on the left this season, particularly in lieu of the fact that Portuguese attacker Tiago Tomas has had a very bad camp and Mohamed Amoura recently suffered another injury setback. All of this may translate to an excellent opportunity for Zehnter (observed above), but that has nothing to do with the sad news here. Ugh. We may never see Paredes in the Bundesliga again.
Tactical scout, Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg open up competitive play against fifth-tier-opponents SV Hemelingen on Saturday. Scouts of the friendlies reveal that Simonis is nowhere close to finding a consistent XI yet and there’s plenty of injury issues reverberating about the squad. Forecasting a 4-2-3-1 remains easy enough. Figuring out the specific players who shall start not so much. We’ll nevertheless give it a try.
Lineup—VfL Wolfsburg (Projected)
A Pokal fixture seems an appropriate time to allow Pejcinovic and Dardai to do their thing together up front. Cerny can always slide left in the event that the German-Hungarian falters. Marius Müller’s hard work last season should entitle him to a Pokal start. Apart from these three selections, the veterans take over to see this one out early. Note that Souza’s fitness currently stands in doubt. Mattias Svanberg would serve as a the back-up midfield option in this case.
GGFN | Peter Weis
