As the 2025/26 Bundesliga relegation race heats up, Get German Football News is pleased to release “relegation check” features checking in on German clubs fighting the drop. We turn to one of the Bundesliga’s 2025/26 promoted teams next. With plenty of flair and charm, Lukas Kwasniok has 1. FC Köln doing relatively well for a team back for its first year in the German top flight. Scraping together 24 points through 24 match-days is no small feat.
Kwasniok’s personnel selections still haven’t always proven the most popular. Moreover, some generally horrendous form stretches (particularly late in the 2025 calendar year) had some wondering if Kwasniok was nothing more than another Markus Gisdol hiding behind a deceptively effervescent personality. The 44-year-old – while occasionally woefully incoherent – has nevertheless somehow managed to make his weird choice of puzzle pieces fit enough times.
Most unfortunately for Kwasniok, the fact that his team ended up on the losing end of Friday night’s early relegation six pointer against Augsburg raises more questions. The cathedral city club needs at least 11 points over the course of the final ten match-days in order to secure its second consecutive season of Bundesliga football. As we’ll discuss in greater depth below, Kwasniok may end up being an impediment to this process.
1. FC Köln
A total of 22 professionals have logged Bundesliga minutes this season. Only fellow promoted side Hamburg (27) has deployed a larger array of players. Such statistics don’t necessarily come as a surprise in either case. A team transitioning up a level must give its second tier talent a chance to audition whilst also working out how to best incorporate higher-level players into the squad.
When it comes to the art of strengthening the roster to compete in the top flight, GGFN wholeheartedly endorsed the work (and promotion) of chief Köln personnel executive Thomas Kessler. The 40-year-old’s work in the January transfer window (on paper at least) equaled that which he was able to deliver during the offseason.
In this case, however, it’s important to ascertain precisely why what works on paper isn’t doing as well as expected in practice. Coaching, to which we will now turn, plays a role. From the very beginning of the campaign, the team’s defensive work on set-pieces wasn’t up to snuff. Kwasniok’s recent dismissal of his main set piece trainer only partially rectifies the problem.
Trainer Check, 1. FC Köln
The two biggest problems one discerns when it comes to Kwasniok’s team’s work in open play are very slow ball recovery time and poor service into the box from the flanks. One can’t really fault the fact that the trainer must contend with a raft of defensive injuries for either one of these issues. It’s much more a matter of way too many personnel and formational shifts that preclude the squad from establishing a basic rhythm.
Before proceeding any further, the author will side with Kwasniok on what he deems to be the non-issue of Said El Mala’s playing time. The young talent experiences form dips. That’s not up for debate. The personnel shifts nevertheless do seem to be sending the likes of Jakub Kaminski, Isak Bergman Johannesson, and Tom Krauß into unnecessary form lulls.
One feels as if more consistent deployments could have produced more consistent form from these players. Kwasniok’s in-game tactical adjustments too often revolve around a slight obsession with a central midfield double pivot. This has the effect of really throwing off his wingbacks, whom the Kölner gaffer can’t decide to nail down in the first place. The whole service issue then, in turn, gets exacerbated.
To his credit, Kwasniok has been mostly done well when it comes to squeezing good performances out of those players with extensive Bundesliga experience who have struggled at this level. Linton Maina and Luca Waldschmidt pop in and out of the team and make a surprising impact whenever they do. This at least shows that the trainer possesses a keen eye for players on the up in training.
The basics simply need to be better streamlined.
Key Performer Check, 1. FC Köln
Ragnar Ache, Striker
Is it too early to recommend the “Kölner King-of-the-Air” for the German national team? At plenty of times this season, Germans certainly didn’t think so. The Frankfurt-native always possessed the basic skill set to be a top level striker. Aerial ability. A solid “deep drop” work ethic. A soft “cushion-like” touch in both dribbling and passing/flanking. While missing-in-action offensively in last night’s loss, Ache still put in some great defensive work. One also held one’s breath on a few occasions when he opted to make some forward moves on the ball. The results simply didn’t materialize.
One way or another, Ache gets set to play a very significant role in Köln’s remaining games. Kwasniok possesses a very gifted center forward who can totally bypass the whole service issue. The late-career bloomer remains totally welcome on the German national team should Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann wisely opt to give him a look. Had injuries not derailed the 27-year-old’s career years ago, he would have long been representing the Bundesrepiblik at the highest level.
Rav van den Berg, Centre-back
A total summer transfer flop finally looked to be ready to contribute when Kwasniok backed him for what the author is certain must be the third time. Such talk cools immediately after last nights performance. Somewhat inexplicably moved to the right-hand-side of the back-three, the former Middlesbrough man committed mistake after mistake. Van den Berg found himself lucky not to be punished more often. The Dutchman constituted by far the weakest link in a defensive chain that also featured Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and Cenk Özkacar.
Simpson-Pusey and Özkacar have actually done largely well in their 2026 deployments. Van den Berg desperately needs to find his feet in order to bring some stability to this central defensive corps. Kwasniok back-three plug ins like Sebastian Sebulonsen, Kristoffer Lund, and Eric Martel haven’t panned out. Whenever van den Berg has worked, opponents understandably show zero fear attacking his side. As a central component of a back-three, the 21-year-old appears to only work on a very deep inverted pivot.
Tom Krauß, Central midfielder
One piece of good news concert the fact that – if van den Berg does need to return to the bench again – Krauß remains available to help out in defense. The 24-year-old journeyman once again worked very hard last night, aiding his defensive colleagues on both challenges and helping them advance out of the back whenever they got stuck. After all his moving about, Krauß needs this team as much or more than they need him. Kwasniok needs to tap into this and keep calling on him.
Jakub Kaminski, Winger
The Wolfsburg loanee’s epic start to the Bundesliga campaign stalled in large part to Said El Mala’s rise. One must also factor in the fact that Ragnar Ache’s emerge slides Marius Bülter back to his left-lane role whenever Kwasniok isn’t using a double striker set. When Bülter and Ache work up front together, Kaminski gets pushed back too far down on the left rail to play his game. Some sort of solution must be found here. Ideally, it won’t revolve around the use of Kaminski as a right wingback.
Tactics Check, 1. FC Köln
Nicking a point off one of the hottest teams in the Bundesliga last weekend certainly counts for a lot. Last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Hoffenheim proved a weird match indeed. The Kölner fans and the team itself eased off the gas pedal after getting off to a perfect start in the first half due to a medical emergency in the RheinEnergieStadion stands. We shall never know if Kwasniok’s crew might have pulled off the upset.
Sadly, the stricken Kölner fan didn’t end up pulling through. One stills feels compelled to point out that the match attendee was 90-years-of-age. Much as we may not be prepared to accept it, immortality does not exist. With that hard truth in mind, we’ll return to the football. The two teams contesting the match – with some difficulty – pulled through to score three more goals on the day.
Lineup—Köln, Round 23 (3-4-3)
This 3-4-3 largely struggled to deal with Hoffenheim’s far more potent 4-1-4-1. The Kölner front-three at least generated plenty of chances on the counter. After El Mala’s somewhat lucky 64th-minute equalizer, the above mentioned late-match double pivot shift predictably enough produced nothing. Kwasniok rolled out the same opening formation against Augsburg, plugging in Bülter, Simpson-Pusey, and Waldschmidt for the injured Schmied, Sebulonsen, and El Mala.
Lineup—Köln, Round 24 (3-4-3)
Unimaginative work in open play meant that observers were treated to little other than hopeful long chucks. Martel struck the crossbar off a corner in the 38th-minute. Apart from that, the lack of anything – combined with the fact that the team got absolutely murdered on the right – compelled Kwasniok to switch his tactics relatively early this time. Johannesson relieved the booked Martel at the half.
Lineup—Köln, 46th-minute (3-3-1-3)
Johannesson nearly opened up the scoring level shortly after the restart via a set-up of Kristoffer Lund in the 48th-minute. FCA keeper Finn Dahmen ensured that his team would not fall behind with an excellent save. Further chances weren’t forthcoming and the Domstädter deservedly lost. Lund did punch through one more time in the closing stages, yet couldn’t find the right colleague.
Interestingly enough, Kwasniok opted for youth with his next four substitutions. Youssoupha Niang, Fynn Schenten, and new Bayern loanee Felipe Chavez all joined El Mala in coming off the bench. Watching the Next Generations talents attempt to put something together late wasn’t a boring experience at all. All four of them had their moments, just lacking enough mature field vision and precision in the right moments.
There’s much to look forward to in the long term.
In the short term?
Kwasniok’s charges need at least ten more points.
Can they get them?
Remaining Schedule, 1. FC Köln
Round 25
Borussia Dortmund (H)
Round 26
Hamburger SV (A)
Round 27
Borussia Mönchengladbach (H)
Round 28
Eintracht Frankfurt (A)
Round 29
Werder Bremen (H)
Round 30
St. Pauli (H)
Round 31
Bayer 04 Leverkusen (A)
Round 32
FC Union Berlin (A)
Round 33
FC Heidenheim (H)
Round 34
Bayern Munich (A)
Of great concern here, there isn’t a relatively easy run of fixtures that can allow Köln to pick up momentum. The Effzeh run straight into the difficult set of fixtures that saw them collect only six points in the Hin-runde. That won’t be nearly good enough here. Kwasniok’s team managed only one win during this stretch in the first half of the season; a 4-1 home thumping of Hamburg at the beginning of November.
The three other points were accrued through draws against Bremen, St. Pauli, and Heidenheim. Wins against their direct relegation rivals (including Hamburger SV) will do it this time. Running the table remains a very big ask. It’s not inconceivable at all that the Geißböcke will have to contest the promotion-relegation playoffs.
