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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. After looking at Borussia Mönchengladbach last weekend, we’ll take a deep dive into what’s going on with the team Gladbach defeated in Friday night’s Bundesliga match-day 26 curtain raiser. How are things over in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district?
Rather tight. Prior to the away loss against Gladbach, Alexander Blessin’s “Kiezkicker” were actually on an excellent run-of-form. Two league wins and a draw enabled the “Boys in Brown” to pick up seven points in three consecutive league fixtures. All three results were of massive importance. Blessin’s boys snatched all three points against relegation rivals Werder Bremen, then surprisingly plucked four more from heavily favored Hoffenheim and Frankfurt.
It seemed inevitable that St. Pauli would break away from the relegation pack soon enough. That might still prove the case. For the time being, however, the team struggling to attain its third consecutive season of Bundesliga football will not rise above the relegation playoff place before the weekend is out. Shall alarm bells be ringing alongside AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” over at the Millerntor?
We’ll endeavor to find out.
St. Pauli
It literally seems like an eternity ago that St. Pauli defeated city rivals Hamburger SV at the Volksparkstadion in the Friday night fixture that kicked off match-day two. In fairness, few thought that the magnificent start to the campaign was truly built to last. This very GGFN author – in a feature article published after match-day three – correctly augured that St. Pauli’s overachieving would be followed by a sustained slowdown.
Erm. It should also be noted that a ridiculous nine-match losing streak wasn’t exactly what the author had in mind. The fact that, after St. Pauli snapped a ten-match winless run against Heidenheim on match-day 14, another six-match winless run ensued wasn’t really something foreseeable either. Plenty of voices have called for trainer Alexander Blessin’s head over the course of these painful stretches.
Some may wonder why Blessin is still in the job. The author doesn’t purport to know exactly, but will offer up some defense of the Stuttgart native he once watched play live with his hometown Kickers in Degerloch. As both a player and trainer, Blessin gave one the impression that he was capable of doing quite a bit with very little. He’s certainly managed to squeeze just enough blood out of this particular St. Pauli stone.
Trainer Check, St. Pauli
We’ll begin with a legitimate question. Why – after a historically low-scoring campaign last year – are St. Pauli back to being the Bundesliga’s lowest scoring team? Ill-timed Injuries to strikers Ricky Jade Jones and Andreas Hountondjiobviously haven’t helped. The latest bad batch of injury news, which has sidelined pivotal midfielder James Sands and surging “assist-meister” Manolis Saliakas, serve as the main reason behind the latest speed bump.
Blessin’s personnel rotations, oftentimes rather unnecessary on the top two axes, are worthy of some criticism. The FCSP front office also could have done a much better job acquiring reinforcements during the January transfer window.Somehow, someway, Andreas Bornemann should have been able to get that Morgan Guilavogui deal over the line. In Guilavogui’s absence, Blessin has actually done well to get goals out of non-strikers.
Sands, Saliakas, Joel Chima Fujita, Danel Sinani, Eric Smith, and Hauke Wahl have all contributed goals since the turn of the 2026 calendar year. Mathias Pereira Lage is up and running and Martjin Kaars (albeit via a penalty) has at least opened up his 2026 account. Though it may seem like nothing more than a superstitious hunch, there was just something about the way Blessin handled the match-day 21 encounter against his hometown club that clicked.
Heading into the encounter with Stuttgart, one sensed that Blessin had a plan to pull off the upset. Rotating in four new players, Blessin’s team totally dominated the visiting Swabians during the first half. They were energetic, crushed their opponents in the duels, outshot them 9-2 in the first half. Plenty of luck helped St. Pauli stave off the guests 2-1, but most everything about the game infused Bundesliga watchers with confidence.
Captain Jackson Irvine’s heroic performance also took place on that day.
Something stuck with observers from early February on.
This team seems to possess enough spark to survive.
Key Performer Check, St. Pauli
Andreas Hountondji, Striker
The Benin international made his first appearance of the 2026 calendar year on Friday night, coming on for a 23-minute relief appearance against Eugen Polanski’s foals. Hountondji’s return didn’t produce all that much to fete. The Burnley loanee remained hesitant with his touches, didn’t exactly present the pace to adequately complete long dribbles and lost all but one of his ground challenges. The highly intriguing player all Bundesliga enthusiasts have missed so dearly (both in the German top flight and at AFCON) isn’t back yet. Not even close.
Hountondji requires plenty more match practice. Even after that, it’s doubtful that the leader of the early season over-achieving pack will ever come close to replicating his early season form. The fact is that – at his best – Hountondji gave us all a taste of what a dynamic and diverse finisher he can be. The very old and now very rarely utilized “multi-tool striker” cliché pops into mind when thinking about what he’s capable of when fully fit and confident. If Hountondji can get back to “Huge-Tondji” form soon, he can play a huge role in keeping both his club and himself in the Bundesliga.
Danel Sinani, Attacker
Blessin’s “bridge ten” needs to get back to working behind the forward line as soon as possible. Forced to fill in as a makeshift lead striker in recent weeks, Sinani simply isn’t built to lead the line. The 28-year-old former EFL Championship mainstay remains a player built to facilitate link-up play. Watching him totally screw up his timing on promising counterattacks is a seriously painful exercise. For that matter, so too does observing him stumble as a second axis wide rail support player. It just isn’t him. Sinani works best with two forwards ahead of him to feed.
Arkadiusz Pyrka, Right Wingback
Pyrka leads what amounts to a composite section for all the FCSP wingbacks. From the very beginning of the season, one could tell that this position (on both sides) would play a hugely significant role when it came to the team’s fortunes this season. Pyrka and his fellow new summer addition Louis Oppie helped perhaps more than any other players during the squad’s surprisingly strong start to the campaign. Both have largely disappointed since, only really serving as the motivating forces behind Manolis Saliakas’ revival. With Saliakas now out, Pyrka and Oppie must step into the breech big time.
As he proved last night, Lars Ritzka isn’t up to the task.
Eric Smith, Central Defender
Phrew. Much as he may of deserved it, one definitely didn’t care for the manner in which Blessin lambasted Eric Smith’s midfield performance last night. The team truly needs its versatile Swede not never before now that Sands is injured and captain Jackson Irvine’s legs keep getting heavier. Poor Smith found himself on the wrong end of genuinely vicious transfer rumors this past January. Perhaps that’s why the 29-year-old looks totally unfocused and unable to confidently attempt anything other than short passes. Blessin should be offering support in order to get him rolling again.
Yomoya Ando, Central Defender
Smith’s supposed long term replacement has actually done extremely well since arriving in the “Kiez”. Like several of his fellow defensive colleagues last night, he had his blackout moments in defensive and often lacked clear conviction when it came to moving the ball forward. The 27-year-old still impresses. Three “off matches” from Ando (the other two coming against Bayer Leverkusen in both the Bundesliga and Pokal) can be forgiven. One generally likes the work of the thrice-capped Samurai international. Ideally, he can keep it up.
Nikola Vasilj, Keeper
The Bosnian national team keeper (who came close to joining the likes of Augsburg’s Finn Dahmen and Freiburg’s Noah Atubolu when it came to the club record discussions last year) hasn’t spent quite as much time in the spotlight this season. At least, not since his well-earned reputation as a “penalty killer” faded after match-day one. No matter. Vasilj doesn’t need the limelight. He remains a solid gem who continues to bail his anemically offensive team out of plenty of matches. The 30-year-old will have more “hero moments” down the stretch.
Tactics Check, St. Pauli
Blessin’s “possession bossers” hung back and allowed Albert Riera’s Eintracht Frankfurt to have more of the ball last weekend at the Millerntor. The FCSP trainer actually did well to exploit the core aspect of Riera’s (oftentimes deliberately boring) match-plan. It worked. Riera’s Hessians tired themselves out. Blessin’s boys got their chances in on the counter. A disciplined low block kept Riera’s 4-1-4-1 at bay.
Lineup—FCSP, Round 25 (3-4-3)
The back-five transitioned well to a higher pressing engine on the ball. This opened up a bit of space for the SGE fullbacks, but Vasilj remained on his game. St. Pauli were a tad unlucky to see a couple of efforts strike the goal frame. Unfortunately, the Kiezkicker also couldn’t reward their robust start to the second half with a goal. Saliakas’ injury didn’t help. Neither did Blessin’s later tactical substitution of Adam Dwingala on for Ando.
Blessin maintained high spirits after last Sunday’s 0-0 draw. The team adequately executed his instructions and picked up a hard earned point. Interestingly enough, trainer Blessin specifically stated that he would have taken the same result against Gladbach last night. The squad Blessin put together seemed geared to grind out another goalless tie. It almost worked.
Two enforced chances saw Ritzka and Adam Dwingala replace the injured Sands and Saliakas. One can easily discern the sources of Blessin’s annoyance. Smith worked a safe split-stagger behind Irvine in midfield. The back-three tightened up significantly in order to minimize potential defensive errors. Smith and Ando simply didn’t do their jobs in the two instances that allowed Gladbach to score.
Lineup—FCSP, Round 26 (3-4-3)
Apart from the two mistakes, there isn’t all that much negative to say about the performance of the individual players. Sinani – as noted above – was (as usual) lost in his unnatural position. Pyrka, Joel Chima Fujta and Mathias Pereira Lage labored hard to work the ball forward. The creative spark may have been lacking in all three cases, but they were by no means lethargic.
The two tactical tweaks from Blessin had the effect of confusing the XI. No one really seemed on the same page when it came to flow on the charge. Substitutes Oppie, Hountondji, and Kaars couldn’t really pick up momentum thanks to the fact that everyone else was frustrated. Overall, St. Pauli nevertheless had their moments and looked like a serviceable enough Bundesliga team.
Remaining Schedule, St. Pauli
The Piraten presently work through the very same difficult stretch of games that constituted the tail end of their autumn slump. One has to flash forward five match-days before one gets to a Bundesliga club they beat in the Hin-runde. The sense that Blessin’s boys can do much better than zero points against Freiburg, Union Berlin, Bayern, and Köln prevails. St. Pauli can easily pick up seven points from the next four fixtures.
Round 27
SC Freiburg (H)
Round 28
FC Union Berlin (A)
Round 29
Bayern München (H)
Round 30
FC Köln (H)
Round 31
FC Heidenheim (A)
Round 32
Mainz 05 (A)
Round 33
RB Leipzig (A)
Round 34
Wolfsburg (H)
Seven points heading into Heidenheim won’t come close to guaranteeing safety. Four more points from the final four matches will be needed in order to ensure that Bundesliga football returns to the Millerntor next year. One fully expects more ugly and physical matches ahead as the team slowly, yet steadily, inches its way out of the relegation fray. In the final analysis, there’s plenty to inspire confidence that they can get the job done,
