Roberto Lazaró led a young but exciting Mainz side to an expected automatic promotion despite a firesale of 26 players for £119m in his first season in Germany. Now the pressure was on Lazaró, who was already listed in Mainz fans’ favoured personnel, and his inexperienced side to survive back in Bundesliga.
But the longer-term aim, of course, is to lead Mainz to their first-ever Bundesliga title with a fully homegrown team. And that may be an even tougher task than the one Lazaró achieved in Spain, given Bayern have won every title bar one during this save and, as a result, every title bar one since in the last 22 years since 2021 – with the only exception being Leipzig in 2026. That said, this Bayern side is hardly the invincible force it often becomes, dropping points 9 times last season and 12 times the previous 2 seasons.
Lazaró didn’t see much need for change but did continue his South American surge. He signed attackers Daison Fortunato, who he’d tracked in his Valencia days, and Franco Fernández for £4m and £1.5m from Gremio and Defensa y Justicia, winger Marcus Vinícius for £1m from Criciúma, midfielder Stiven Navarro for £875k from Santa Fe, centre back Roberto Carlos Castaneda for £500k from Inter de Palmira and full back Marcelo for £1.9m from Paranaense. He also promoted academy products midfielder Angelo Tursi and 16-year-old goalkeeper Daniel Schroder.
Lazaró stuck with his asymmetric 4-5-1 approach. He was slightly concerned the team was too young to compete in Bundesliga, given 9 of the starting 11 are teenagers and only 6 of the squad are 21 or older. But he had full faith in these players’ potential.
Stepping Up To Bundesliga
Mainz were huge favourites to go down with 900/1 title odds alongside Greuter Furth. The bookies surprisingly backed Sandhausen to finish above them, with other likely relegation battlers including Hamburg, Bochum, Koln and Gladbach. Bayern were 6/5 favourites to win Bundesliga followed by Leipzig (7/2), Leverkusen (6/1), Dortmund (7/1) and Wolfsburg (25/1).
Life back in Bundesliga began with a tough test at Leverkusen, who took an early lead created by Lazaró’s former player Adriano. But Mainz struck back immediately as Brajan Gruda crossed for midfielder Oscar Pérez to tuck home. Leverkusen dominated but winger Guillermo Henrique went close twice and Adriano predictably scored a late winner. But this result offered hope about their ability to compete, and Tursi became the club’s youngest-ever player aged 17 years and 98 days.
Their first home game wasn’t much easier as they welcomed Wolfsburg and they again conceded the first shot (which really isn’t helpful). They improved after the break and a shocking backpass gifted an equaliser to striker Kryzsztof Feliks. Both sides had chances but, despite losing goalkeeper Roland Anton to a broken arm (how often does this have to happen!), which forced Schroder on to quickly replace Tursi as the youngest player aged just 16 years 117 days, Mainz held on for their 1st point.
Gruda’s goal and a brilliant Schroder performance with 7 saves – which saw the youngster become Lazaró’s first choice keeper – earned another point at Hoffenheim before Gruda laid on Feliks and Henrique goals for another draw at home to Greuter Furth. They applied themselves well in a 4-2 loss at Leipzig and took that into a big home game against Hannover as Gruda’s penalty and injury-hit striker Hernán Acosta’s late goal off the bench earned a first victory and clean sheet. But a first hammering of the season followed with a 6-0 defeat at early leaders Stuttgart.
Injuries were a huge feature of the first few months, including star homegrown defender Volker Breidenbach missing 3 months with a damaged spine. But his return and a switch to a more defensive 4-4-1-1 saw Mainz earn a 0-0 at home to Koln and nick their first away 2-1 at bottom-side Hertha. A big test of the new approach was the visit of Bayern, who dominated and won 3-0. But Mainz picked themselves up to win 2-1 at Sandhausen, who were flying in 7th place, courtesy of Gruda’s brace. That was bettered by midfielder Luis Gutiérrez’s strike edging a 1-0 at home to 3rd-place Hamburg before an own goal and centre-back José Bertazzi’s header earned a smash-and-grab 2-0 win over leaders Dortmund. And those results saw Mainz head into the winter break in 13th place, 6 points above the relegation positions.
Relegation Clashes Key To Bundesliga Survival
Lazaró’s efforts at Mainz saw Man United approach him with an interview offer, which he attended out of curiosity. But he forgot all about it as he took the Mainz lads back to Valencia for a winter training camp. That did them the world of good as they began 2034 with an important 1-0 win over Freiburg courtesy of left back Max Fingrafe’s first goal for the club, which moved them 9 points clear of relegation.
Defeats to Wolfsburg and Leverkusen followed before a couple of huge games in early November. First up, the improving Gutiérrez curled an early opener at home to 16th-place Hoffenheim before the ref awarded a disgrace of a penalty. But Mainz showed a clinical edge to win 3-1 with late Acosta and Fernández goals. A trip to 17th-place Grether Furth followed, and Mainz again got a flyer with a special 25-yard volley by right back De Nilson Barbosa. That goal was arguably bettered by Acosta, who picked the ball up 20 yards out, turned and smashed it into the corner after an hour. The hosts were restricted to just 1 shot on target and a 2-0 victory took Mainz 12 points clear of any relegation concerns with 13 games remaining.
Draws against Stuttgart, Koln and Hertha edged Mainz closer to survival before getting thumped 6-0 at Bayern. Lazaró implemented a new 3-6-1 approach towards the end of the season and it started well with a 3-0 win over Sandhausen in which academy product striker Tim Koch scored his first senior goal. A few weeks later, Pérez and Gruda goals earned a 2-0 win over Gladbach, which mathematically secured Mainz’s Bundesliga status with 4 games remaining.
They finished the campaign safely in mid-table, taking 48 points after 13 wins, 9 draws and 12 defeats, scoring 42 and conceding 51. They finished 17 points clear of the dropzone and only 4 points off the European places. At the top of the table, Dortmund stopped Bayern’s run of 7 successive titles and 21 out of 22 by winning their first Bundesliga for 22 years by 11 points.
Mainz Homegrown Players Update
Mainz easily avoided any relegation concerns in their first season back in Bundesliga. Acosta led the way with 10 goals in 26 games followed by Gruda (8), Feliks (6) and Pérez (3), while Grude topped the assists with 11 followed by Gutiérrez (5) and 5 players with 3.
Breidenbach made it to 13 on the NxGn list with his centre back partner Bertazzi at 41. Breidnebach also won the Vereinigung der Vertragsfussballer Fussball-Bundesliga Newcomer der Saison award with Schroder in 2nd. And the potential at Mainz was boosted by another good youth intake led by Marlon Endress, who comes in as the 8th-best centre back at the club. He was joined by four more elite talents in winger Rachid Salhi and holding midfielders Dirbaz Doster, Jesse Berndroth and Thomas Klassen. They also had a promising winger in Nicola Zanellati, a few more decent midfield options and a solid goalkeeper.
Mainz don’t have too many homegrown players yet, but will do when the first batch of South Americans become homegrown. But 7 academy products contributed 13 goals in 98 league games.
While the pick of the youth sides was striker Maciej Wasilewski, who scored 20 in 30 games. And the other key performers were the following, click the table to see their stats.
Football Manager Addict 
Leave a comment