Bundesliga Tactics Check | FC Augsburg

Wagner’s Augsburg began the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign with a surprise 1-3 away win over FC Freiburg. Two losses against FC Bayern München and FC St. Pauli followed. We’ll cover those matches along with all the interesting stories surrounding this club below. It still looks to be a successful season for the Bavarian Swabian club in the process of re-branding itself based on the city’s Roman heritage.

Incidentally, the club’s “re-branding” is an interesting story unto itself. Those interested in acquiring the snazzy new “Römertricot” should definitely check out the club’s gift shop. The manner in which Augsburg have redecorated their dressing room tunnel with Roman bricks also leaves the club in a weirdly generous mood. Augsburg is actually sending out “roman bricks” to those who request that specific piece of club swag.

That’s actually not a joke!

Give it a try!

But the author digresses.

Onwards to the football.

Interesting Developments, FC Augsburg

The axial rise of Mert Kömür

The talented young German attacking midfielder has been on every Bundesliga watcher’s radar for quite some time. That being said, absolutely no one could have predicted that Wagner would turn to the 20-year-old as his lead striker. Kömür – in the absence of the suspended Samuel Essende and the injured Philipp Tietz – has taken advantage of his turn leading the line. Wagner tapped Kömür to serve about Steve Mounié despite the fact that the latter (the author believes he’s now said a thousand times) turned in a promising training camp.

In the beginning, it seemed obvious enough that Wagner devised a false-nine-role for Kömür. It didn’t take long for the newly called up Germany U21 international to summon up the courage to play as a true center-forward. The lad also surprised with an unexpected quick bounce-back from injury to start against St. Pauli this weekend. The inferred lesson here concerns the fact that Wagner’s influence not be all that relevant here. Kömür appears personally quite driven and his ambition is carrying him quite far.

The revival of Kristijan Jakic

When the Eintracht Frankfurt flop moved to Augsburg on loan during the January 2024 transfer window (Augsburg’s lone incoming transfer that month apart from total flop Pep Biel) the news was treated as something of a joke in German footballing circles. Admittedly, the author chuckled a bit as well. Jakic’s ability to help this team nevertheless never really stood in question. The Croatian’s versatility always rendered him a useful player. Jakic played all along the defensive line and in midfield for Oliver Glasner’s Europa League winning 2021/22 squad.

The Croat began making an impact for Jess Thorup’s FCA almost immediately, earning a regular starting role before January was out and registering his first assist in just his third start. Jakic memorably bagged a brace against Niko Kovac’s Wolfsburg in March 2024. Though he didn’t get his name on the scoresheet much last season, Jakic featured in 31 of 34 league fixtures under Thorup. Wagner has moved the 28-year-old Croat international up from sweeper to a proper place in the midfield double six and clearly already has a fabulous relationship with him.

Stay tuned, here!

A flurry of transfer deadline activity

The newly re-jiggered FCA front office moved into their new administrative domiciles in early July and evidently took eight weeks or so to plan out their transfer deadline day activities. In hindsight, it shouldn’t serve as a surprise to learn that Benni Weber, Marc Lettau, Manuel Baum and Julian Baumgartliner had some plans in store for the end of the window. These four are all well-known and experienced German footballing personnel officers. Kudos to the quartet for wrapping up tons of solid transactions as the offseason would down to a close. The Fabian Rieder deal proves they knew how to target the right type of players.

Tactics Check, FC Augsburg

Much has transpired in the Fuggerstadt since the pre-season primer came out. We’ve much to catch up on as Augsburg happened to be one of the teams assessed before their opening round Pokal fixture. Wagner’s crew quickly erased memories of their tepid pre-season with a 2-0 victory over Hallerscher FC in their first cup tie. Kömür lined up in the position one would expect from him in a double-striker-set. Mounié, and later Essende, both scored in this:

Wagner obviously had to adjust for Essende’s absence in the league. The FCA trainer did so by deliberately benching Mounié, moving Kömür all the way up front and, handing Fellhauer a forward-oriented attacking assignment. Augsburg’s team sheet released just prior to the opening round Bundesliga fixture against Freiburg inspired very little confidence. One failed to understand how the link-up play would work in this arrangement.

This significantly more defensive posture struggled to gain traction against the Breisgauer. In one of the weirdest results of opening day, however, Augsburg suddenly woke up to put three past hosting Freiburg before the opening half concluded. Up until the half-hour-mark of the game, Julian Schuster’s SCF dominated. Freiburg would have even taken a 1-0 lead into the tunnel were it not for a disallowed goal.

A cascading series of errors enabled Dimitrios Giannoulis, Chrislain Matsima, and Marius Wolf to instead send Augsburg into the locker room with a 0-3 away lead. Giannoulis and Wolf supplied some sparkle on their unassisted goals. Kömür set up Matsima. In the case of all three tallies, Freiburg experienced concentration lapses and “blackout moments”.

Freiburg recovered to play a much more stable second-half, eventually pulling a goal back from the penalty spot. The final 1-3 result actually ended up being the total inverse of the full-time xG (Freiburg 3.04, Augsburg 1.22). Wagner made no changes to the XI ahead of the Round Two showdown against FC Bayern München at the WWK-Arena. Things got a little weirder late on.

The underdog hosts fought reasonably well against the might German record champs, though they again scored their two goals in the 2-3 loss in an odd-fashion during one of their weaker spells. Wagner’s second league match saw itself defined predominantly by a series of FCA injuries. The eventually concussed Robin Fellhauer had to fill in as both the right and left wingback when both Wolf and Giannoulis departed proceedings.

Jakic and Fellhauer continued to excel irrespective of what sort of positioning or stagger Wagner had them working. Something of a shame that Jakic flatly rejected Wagner’s request to work on the right rail. On a couple of occasions thus far this year, Wagner has already admitted that tactics aren’t exactly his forté. One sees this in the team. Players are given loose roles that they are free to re-define. Moreover, if they don’t like them, it appears they don’t have to do them.

In any event, it’s time to fast forward to the most recent match against St. Pauli. A friendly over the international break enabled Arne Maier, Yussuf Kabadayi, Cedric Zesiger, Mads Pedersen, and Nediljko Labrovic to get run-outs. Not much to report on from a 1-2 loss to Bavarian neighbors SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Surprisingly, Kömür and Wolf fought back from injuries in time to feature in the XI against St. Pauli.

Unfortunately for the Bavarian Swabians, the fact that Keven Schlotterbeck and Dimitrios Giannoulis couldn’t make it back in time proved decisive. Schlotterbeck replacement Cedric Zesiger – despite playing a match worthy of his potential– committed the foul that enabled St. Pauli to draw level from the penalty spot in the 45th. Zesiger would later inadvertently deflect in St. Pauli’s second goal.

Elvis Rexhbecaj proved ineffective as a makeshift left wingback and was eventually moved central after the Jakic injury. Rexhbecaj had difficulty adjusting to the tactical switch and later got booked. Fellhauer came off the bench to relieve Rexhbecaj on the left, but understandably played tentatively after his concussion scare. Tietz, Gharbi, Alexis Claude Maurice, and young prospect Aiman Dardari managed little off the bench.

Upcoming fixtures and assessment, Augsburg

Saturday, September 20th

FSV Mainz 05 (H) 15:30

Saturday, September 27th

FC Heidenheim (A) 15:30

Saturday, October 4th

VfL Wolfsburg (H) 15:30

Things should begin trending upwards for Wager and company with three very winnable fixtures before the next international break. Insofar as the attack is concerned, the FCA trainer will be most grateful to finally get Samuel Essende back from suspension in time to face die Nullfünfter next Saturday. Kömür can slide back to pair with Elias Saad on the second axis, or even work deeper as a staggered six behind Saad and Rieder.

A couple of early speed bumps against strong teams shouldn’t knock Wagner off course too much. One sees this team picking up plenty of points and furnishing us with some interesting stories. Fabian Rieder has the tone of the project down. The extremely popular German trainer has us all engaged and paying full attention to his FCA. It seems highly likely that we’ll be discussing Augsburg a lot this season.

And do check in on those bricks too!

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