It’s all to easy to assume, with Stuttgart sitting five points and just one place off the bottom of the Bundesliga table, that this is a classic case of ‘second season syndrome’.
If 2020/21 was Stuttgart’s Is This It? then 2021/22 is their Room on Fire.
Delve a little deeper, however, and things are not quite so simple. The phrase ‘victims of their own success’ comes to mind.
Last summer, Stuttgart lost their talismanic goalkeeper (Gregor Kobel), their first-choice centre-back (Marc Oliver Kempf), Argentina international Nicolas Gonzalez and veteran playmaker Gonzalo Castro.
And that’s before you mention the injuries. Injuries that have robbed Stuttgart of two players who contributed 27 goals between them last term.
Jet-heeled winger Silas dislocated his shoulder almost immediately after returning from a year on the sidelines. But perhaps the biggest miss of all has been Sasa Kalajdzic.
A nightmare season
Retaining the services of last season’s 16-goal top scorer – and one of the division’s breakthrough stars – felt like a major coup last summer. Especially after Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United showed an interest in the 6ft 7ins giant (FT)
“Getting a replacement at such a late point in time is very difficult or even impossible. 30 million would not be enough (for Kalajdzic),” director Sven Mislintat told Kicker back in July.
Unless Stuttgart can drag themselves away from relegation danger – the ongoing struggles of Monchengladbach, Hertha Berlin and co mean survival is still a possibility – then Kalajdzic’s market value will plummet quicker than Megan Fox’s film career.
But there’s no guarantee that last summer’s suitors will come knocking again.
A long-standing shoulder injury means Kalajdzic has been restricted to just four starts in 24 Bundesliga games. His absence denied coach Pellegrini Matarazzo his biggest goal threat (quite literally, given the Austrian’s towering height) while robbing one of the division’s most creative talents, left-back Borna Sosa, of his goal-poaching partner-in-crime.
Can Stuttgart survive?
Sosa and Kalajdzic dovetailed in devastating fashion as Stuttgart finished ninth last term, a breath of fresh air on their return to the big time.
As Kalajdzic made a rare start against Frankfurt last month, he powered home a trademark Sosa delivery. His only goal of the entire campaign reminding Stuttgart supporters what they’ve been missing.
If Kalajdzic can stay fit between now and June, Stuttgart may still be a Bundesliga side in 2022/23. That, however, is an ‘if’ as big as the man himself.
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