Season Analysis: The Lilies in 24/25

Safety on Matchday 31 after many ups and downs:

It certainly wasn’t a good game that the Lilies played against Preußen Münster on Matchday 31. Yet the 90 minutes at the Preußenstadion still made a difference. The 1-1 draw secured SV 98’s safety, giving them planning security for the upcoming season on April 26th. One might think that a Bundesliga relegated team at this point in the season would at best have to deal with other sporting issues than early relegation, but recent history alone has often demonstrated how challenging a year can be for a team after experiencing relegation. Especially when various factors come together that can’t always be taken into account in advance of a round. As was the case with the Lilies.

„The burden of last season, the weak start to the season, the unbelievable injury woes. This challenging season had many ingredients for a worst-case scenario,“ Paul Fernie summed up in Münster, certainly still thinking about the situation prevailing at SV 98 in the first days of September. On August 31, the Lilies had lost 4-0 to Elversberg, were second to last in the table with one point from four games, and had to look for a new head coach after Torsten Lieberknecht’s resignation.

„From now on, nothing less than our survival in the 2. Bundesliga is at stake,“ wrote Kicker at the time about the situation surrounding the Merck Stadium. A few days later, after Florian Kohfeldt was introduced as the new head coach, the magazine announced: „(…) Stopping the downward spiral, even in the lower leagues, will now be Kohfeldt’s first task at his new club. Another relegation would not be so easy for the Lilies to bear.“

These passages alone make it clear what the dominant issue was in Darmstadt at the time. A possible relegation on Matchday 31 seemed a distant prospect, but as the season progressed, Florian Kohfeldt repeatedly referred to the starting position and the league table situation, which were a daily occurrence for the Lilies not only in September but also throughout October. The fact that the 42-year-old had to remind some people of this phase was due to a series of nine unbeaten games, which gave SV 98 a whopping 19 points between Matchdays eight and 16 and a jump into the middle of the table.

In particular, the 5-1 home victory against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on December 14th caused the club and the media to suddenly talk about a direct return to the Bundesliga just a few weeks after the „fight for survival.“ „If things continue like this, Darmstadt will be a promotion candidate again,“ prophesied BILD, while various media outlets highlighted Kohfeldt’s league table, in which the Lilies had accumulated the most points in the league since the coach took over. The man being sung about, however, neither wanted to discuss this specific ranking nor did the Siegen native participate in any kind of projections. „If we say we want to reach a certain position in the table. How would that change our approach to the games?“ asked Kohfeldt, adding: „We do look at the table, but more towards the bottom, even though probably no one will believe me.“

It wasn’t long before these words, which at the time were considered „understated“ (Darmstädter Echo), took on a different meaning. The spectacle against FCK was followed by six games without a win, five of which were even lost. Added to this was an extremely tense personnel situation, which would haunt SV 98 until the final Matchday – with only three games in the second half of the season, Kohfeldt had 20 men available for the Matchday squad. The team collected only 18 points in the second half of the season (more on that under „That didn’t go well“), with just three of those coming away from home. A record that no one at Böllenfalltor is happy with, and one that meant that the Lilies had to repeatedly emphasise their own „vigilance“ and keep an eye on the lower places for a long time. And yet, given the start of the season, the timing of the coaching change, the numerous absences, and the poor second-half record, staying in the league on Matchday 31 will never be the worst-case scenario for SV 98. And this season, it meant achieving the minimum goal in the oft-discussed „development season.“

The Game Idea:

Anyone who has regularly watched the press conferences after SV 98’s games this season will have noticed that opposing coaches repeatedly struck a similar tone when describing the Lilies‘ style of play. The South Hesse team was said to be „difficult to grasp“ for their opponents, while Kohfeldt’s team used the space well and had „outstanding positional play“. Such and similar statements were made frequently and showed that the Lilies are certainly recognizable with their style of football. „Purposeful and dominant possession football“ was what Kohfeldt described as an important component of his playing philosophy at his presentation in September. These were characteristics that would continue to shape SV 98’s performance over the rest of the season. The Darmstadt team made the seventh most passes this season, and their pass completion rate of 82.67 percent is the sixth best in the league. The Lilies often took control of the game, but in some matches they lacked effectiveness. There is a small catch – especially during the phase in which Kohfeldt had a core of players at his disposal that seemed ideally suited to this style of football. Now, there are often teams that die beautifully when in possession of the ball. The adjective „targeted“ is therefore of great importance. Darmstadt have had 497 shots on goal this season, only the two promoted teams Cologne (561) and Hamburg (504) have had more shots on goal. The xG value of 1.65 per game also makes it clear that the Lilies had good opportunities to score in almost every game. In this statistic, too, only the top teams in the league – Cologne, Paderborn, Hamburg and Kaiserslautern – are ahead of SVD. If you look at the period between the fifth and the 34th matchday alone, many of the figures and facts in the league comparison read positively: The Lilies scored the fourth most goals (54), created the fifth most big chances (51), but at the same time can also point to the third-best value in terms of the opponents‘ XGoals and the fifth-best in terms of shots on goal conceded.

Now we know that statistics aren’t enough to score points. In this case, however, they help underpin the valid point of „game concept.“ The Lilies represent a certain style of football and want to further refine it in the coming season, enriching it even more frequently with straightforward elements that can help ultimately turn evenly matched games in their favour. It should also be important in this regard that coach Kohfeldt can now work with his team for the first time during the summer preseason, after the implementation of his style of play could only begin in September last season. „We have developed a DNA, but it’s not finished yet,“ says sporting director Paul Fernie, thus combining a message with a small task for the coming season.

The development of individual players:

What do Isac Lidberg, Fraser Hornby, Killian Corredor, and Luca Marseiler have in common? All four scored double figures last season. This statistic is also remarkable because three of these four players are real players, and Hornby (after a long injury) is a perceived new signing. This quartet is representative of several players who were able to take a step in their personal development last season. Kohfeldt specifically added midfield engine Kai Klefisch and defenders Aleksandar Vukotic, Guille Bueno, and Sergio Lopez to the list of attacking players. Fabian Nürnberger became a Bulgarian international last season, and Lidberg made his debut for the Swedish national team. „We can make players better,“ summarised sporting director Paul Fernie, who has always had this goal in mind since taking office. The further development of the players obviously helps the Lilies primarily from a sporting perspective, but at the same time, it’s also important for a club like SV 98 to be able to consistently generate transfer revenue. And one thing’s clear: Those who play well also increase their market value.

The bond between fans and team:

Florian Kohfeldt’s closing remarks at the press conference before the match against Jahn Regensburg were special. „We know it hasn’t been the greatest season as a Lilien fan. But I still noticed that the team’s hard work and passion in playing, even if not always successful, were recognised. One of the decisive factors we Lilien have is that the team and fans are very close.“

After the home win against Hannover 96, the head coach had already summarised: „One of the greatest achievements of the season is that the bond between the team and the fans is once again very close. That’s something that’s extremely important for this location. Then the Bölle can release an enormous amount of energy.“

Despite a difficult preseason in the Bundesliga, with its numerous negative experiences and results, the team and fans found a closer bond again during the preparations for the 2024/25 season. This close bond grew stronger over the course of the season and, especially at the Merck Stadium, became an absolute plus for SV 98. The Lilies picked up a whopping 28 points in their own home stadium and won five of their last six home games at the Bölle. The team’s home strength now needs to be carried over into the next season, where it will once again be a matter of appearing as a blue and white unity of team and fans on every Matchday.

Start of the season and second half of the season:

One point from the first four games, one point on Matchdays 18 to 22. In terms of results, both the start of the season and the restart after the winter break were forgettable. Both phases resulted in the Lilies spending a long time in regions of the table that aren’t exactly conducive to well-being. The reasons for the two stuttering starts were certainly very different, but it cost the Lilies a great deal of energy and resilience to get back on track over the course of the first and second half of the season. „We want to get off to a good start“ is a phrase heard across Germany before every season, and is often relegated to the realm of clichés. SV 98’s past season showed how important such a positive start is if you don’t want to spend a long time trying to undo it.

The injuries:

Fabian Holland, Paul Will, and Matthias Bader missed almost the entire season due to cruciate ligament tears, while Christoph Zimmermann was also only able to play in a single league game due to knee problems. Kai Klefisch, Isac Lidberg, Philipp Förster, and Oscar Vilhelmsson were also out for weeks. In addition, there were other short-term absences on almost every matchday. „Have we developed a structure over the season? I would answer that with a relatively clear ’no,'“ Kohfeldt concluded shortly before the end of the season, adding: „With the exception of Marcel Schuhen, Aleksandar Vukotic, and Clemens Riedel, none of the players who were supposed to form a core were consistently available. So, we need to significantly increase player availability to be able to form the core.“

Of course, there are other reasons besides injuries for the poor second half of the season and the many games in which the Lilies were unable to win despite their fundamental superiority. However, it is probably no coincidence that SV 98’s highest player availability occurred during the period in which the Lilies remained unbeaten in nine consecutive games.

The second half of the season:

We already talked about the first five games of the second half of the season in the above passage, in which the Lilies only managed to secure one point. However, they only added another 17 in the remaining 12 games. That’s not a bad record compared to the 22 points the team collected in the same period of the first half of the season, but it’s a clear deterioration. It wasn’t as if SV 98 were being shown their limits week after week. Rather, they weren’t able to win close games. „I refuse to say: Oh yes, that’s all bad luck. No, that’s not bad luck,“ Kohfeldt explained after the defeat at SSV Ulm at the end of March. „The players have to realise that games are decided in small moments.“ And it was precisely in those moments that the Lilies made crucial mistakes all too often. Defensively. And offensively.

The away record:

Chapeau, Lilies fans! On average, 1,800 fans accompanied SV 98 on away games. However, they only celebrated three victories on the road, all in the first half of the season. It’s difficult to explain the discrepancy in points between home and away games; the most logical explanation is probably the special atmosphere at the Merck Stadium, which gives the Lilies a clear advantage there. But one thing is also clear: there’s still considerable room for improvement for the coming season.