Bundesliga 2026/27 Tactical Previews | 1. FC Köln

Bundesliga 2026/27 Tactical Previews | 1. FC Köln Our Get German Football News Bundesliga 2026/27 Tactical Previews series continues with yet another “series within a series”. Our most recent coupling took a look at Bundesliga newcomers SC Paderborn 07 and SV Elversberg. Now, it’s time to turn our attention to the two clubs attempting to navigate that tricky second Bundesliga season: 1. FC Köln and Hamburger SV. We’ll begin with the former. How are things looking in Germany’s cathedral city? That’s quite the query, particularly when one considers the losses to Paderborn in those last two pre-season friendlies. A club this author happened to be most enthusiastic about suddenly looks horribly vulnerable. We might as well get the matter of the Said El Mala transfer speculation out of the way first. So much hinges upon whether the 19-year-old phenom remains with die Geißböcke. The author realizes he must take a stand here and will do so without hesitation. RB Leipzig’s interest in El Mala has, in his opinion, arrived too late. The German Red Bulls have far too much work to do putting their own house in order to complete this late coup. That’s the stance. What about the coach? The author will take another stand. René Wagner’s permanent appointment made enough sense even if Wagner’s record (one win in seven games) suggests otherwise. Wagner’s personality brings with it some intangibles. Moreover, his tactics are straightforwardly effective. With these two burning questions addressed, we’ll add some further observations on the Effzeh. Many congenital underachievers in this team turned in excellent camps. It appears the current trainer has breathed new life into several professionals just in time. Wagner’s stone-cold reliance on science and data proves a welcome refresher from Lukas Kwasniok’s bumbling tirades. The managerial team above Wagner also appears highly competent. This publication fully endorsed Thomas Kessler’s elevation to the sporting director position last spring. To that, we’ll add that former West Ham and Leverkusen administrator Tim Steidten constitutes an excellent choice to serve as squad planner. The (subjective) analysis here remains that the Domstädter are in good shape. 1. FC Köln What if Wagner does get off to a slow start? This could happen. It should be emphasized the current club trainer operates under the same tight parameters as Gladbach gaffer Eugen Polanski. Both of these “relative” Bundesliga rookies cannot afford the luxury of early slip ups. Both permanent appointments came with their fair share of controversy. Both coaches – leading rival Rhine clubs no less – can only officially get themselves off the chopping block with a strong early campaign. The derby even takes place as soon as the Bundesliga reconvenes in early October. Yikes. Strap in! Major personnel shifts, Köln One can stare at Köln’s transfer ledger for a while before realizing that Jakub Kamiński appears on both sides of it. The FC first exercised their €5.5m purchase option after his Wolfsburg loan and then promptly shipped him to Benfica for €17m. Financially, excellent business. Sportingly, somewhat less convenient. Köln turned one attacking player into an €11.5m transfer spread while simultaneously reopening a creative vacancy. Eric Martel and Denis Huseinbasic then left central midfield, Florian Kainz retired, and the loans of Cenk Özkacar, Kristoffer Lund and Felipe Chávez expired. Kessler and Steidten thus entered summer with money to work with and rather a lot of the old squad structure missing. The largest investment concerns someone Köln already knew very well. Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was purchased permanently from Manchester City for €6m, an entirely logical decision after the 20-year-old displaced more experienced defenders last season and established himself as perhaps the most interesting long-term piece in the back line. Köln then spent another €4.9m on Luka Lochoshvili, specifically adding the natural left foot, physicality, organizational authority and set-piece threat that the defensive corps lacked. With Gideon Mensah arriving for free from Auxerre, the left side of the defense has effectively been rebuilt. In midfield, Köln paid €3.5m to retain Tom Krauß and around €1m to bring Paul Okon-Engstler over from Sydney FC. Up top, Reigan Heskey, 18, arrives from Manchester City for €2m as another powerful right-footed attacker most comfortable starting from the left. Gil Neves, also 18, comes from Benfica’s U23s for an undisclosed fee. Neither should be expected to solve immediate Bundesliga problems, but both fit the increasingly obvious Kessler-Steidten recruitment brief: Buy athleticism, technical upside and resale potential before everyone else decides it has become expensive. The more immediate attacking reinforcement is Thijs Dallinga. Köln are paying Bologna a €1m loan fee for the 26-year-old , and that move finally answers one of the roster’s more obvious questions. Ragnar Ache remains Wagner’s first-choice center-forward and central attacking reference, but there was precious little behind him. Dallinga gives Köln a genuine senior alternative rather than another emergency solution. It also allows Wagner to manage Ache’s workload without fundamentally changing the attacking structure every time the starter needs a rest. The rest of the outgoing traffic is mostly squad-clearing. Rasmus Carstensen returned from Aarhus and was sold back there for €1m. Jusuf Gazibegović came home from Sturm Graz only to head straight back out on loan to Widzew Łódź. Dominique Heintz joined Fortuna Düsseldorf, Luca Kilian departed without a club, and several other returning loanees face similarly uncertain paths back into the senior side. The broad strategy nevertheless looks clear. Köln have spent most heavily on the spine, preserved selected loanees who proved themselves, added younger international prospects and secured a backup for Ache with a serious understudy. It gets interesting when one sees how the preseason then supplied several answers the transfer market hadn’t. Notes from pre-season, Köln There was only so much to learn from Köln’s first two summer outings, although René Wagner at least gave us a couple of formations to scribble down while the goals accumulated. Bezirksliga side FC Rheinsüd Köln were beaten 5-0 at the Südstadion in the opener, with the FC beginning in an adventurous 4-1-3-2 and spending almost the entire afternoon camped around the opposition penalty area. Luca Waldschmidt scored one and created another for Youssoupha Niang, Said El Mala hit the bar, and Marius Bülter emerged from ten halftime changes to score twice. The younger El Mala brother Malek also got involved. Said had spent the opening half shooting at the woodwork; Malek came on and scored almost immediately. Sibling rivalry remains an efficient coaching tool. The more revealing development came four days later in the 8-0 win over SV Bergisch Gladbach 09. Wagner returned to the 4-2-3-1 expected to serve as Köln’s reference shape this season, and the scoreline only really became ridiculous after the interval. Bergisch Gladbach, fresh enough to make the first half mildly competitive, trailed only 2-0 before Köln replaced the entire team and wheeled away. Waldschmidt and Said El Mala were again the most interesting first-half combination. Waldschmidt scored almost immediately from an El Mala assist. El Mala later scored from Waldschmidt’s pass and rattled the crossbar for good measure. Ragnar Ache returned for a planned 30-minute cameo after his thigh problem, while Luka Lochoshvili finally made his Köln debut after a muscular complaint had kept him out of the opener. Seven minutes into his first appearance, Lochoshvili headed in an Alessio Castro-Montes corner. That was almost suspiciously on-brand. Lochoshvili required all of seven minutes to demonstrate his importance. He later helped create another goal with a long pass, while Castro-Montes finished the evening with two assists. The opposition level became significantly more useful in Austria. Hertha BSC were only a week away from beginning their 2. Bundesliga campaign and started their current A-team in a 120-minute test. Köln lined up in the now-familiar 4-2-3-1, Tom Krauß partnering new signing Paul Okon-Engstler in the double six. Ache led the line and needed only seven minutes to score, shrugging off his defender around the edge of the box and finishing from distance. Hertha eventually worked their way into the game. Marvin Schwäbe had some actual goalkeeping to do. Köln nevertheless finished their opening 60-minute block strongly. David Fürst forced a save, Said El Mala had a long-range effort tipped onto the crossbar, and Jan Thielmann also threatened. Wagner then swapped the team out. The second group somehow became even less interested in easing its way into proceedings. Reigan Heskey, finally cleared to play after waiting for his work permit, tried to lob the goalkeeper from roughly 55 meters. Soon afterward Bülter struck the underside of the crossbar and Niang somehow managed to hit both posts with the follow-up without scoring. Sebastian Grönning eventually equalized for the Berliners. Bülter restored Köln’s lead by heading in a Linton Maina corner, and young Soufian Gouram rescued Hertha with an excellent late strike for 2-2. The result mattered less than the fact that Köln had created repeatedly against an opponent much closer to competitive readiness and, even after wholesale rotation, never really lost their attacking threat. Real Sociedad then arrived to provide the best opposition of the summer. Köln played the Spanish cup winners twice in roughly 24 hours, first behind closed doors with what was largely a B-team and then before 37,000 spectators in Müngersdorf against a stronger Sociedad selection. The reserves won 2-0. That first match was controlled without being especially spectacular. Waldschmidt missed the clearest first-half chance, Zieler had to make a save at the other end, and Sociedad struck the post. Köln finally broke through when Thielmann reacted to a ball won during Spanish buildup, found Mike Afri Akumu, and the U21 player laid the ball back for Waldschmidt to finish from distance. Bülter added the second after another recovery, while Maina later missed a penalty. The result was useful mainly because it strengthened several individual summer cases: Waldschmidt continued producing, Bülter continued scoring, and Thielmann supplied another good action at precisely the moment Wagner was publicly praising his camp. The public rematch was a more interesting tactical exercise. Köln led almost immediately when Ísak Jóhannesson sent Maina into space with a long pass. Maina profited from Yangel Herrera’s mistake, rounded Álex Remiro and scored. Five minutes later came one of preseason’s more ambitious defensive collaborations: Lochoshvili lost the ball, Sociedad transitioned, Simpson-Pusey slid in to clear, struck the recovering Lochoshvili, and the ball ricocheted off the Georgian past Schwäbe for an own goal. Köln had spent the summer rebuilding central defense that kept only three clean sheets last season. Apparently the new center-backs were already combining. Just in the wrong direction. Oops. Wagner wisely changed the shape after halftime. Julian Pauli joined Simpson-Pusey and Lochoshvili in a back three, with Jonathan Friemel and Maina occupying the wing-back roles. The experiment worked perfectly well. The three-man defense can be dusted off when an opponent or match situation demands it. The winner came from the academy. Afri Akumu attacked down the left and crossed for Nilas Yacobi, another U21 player who had barely been scheduled to feature, to head in the 2-1. Said El Mala had gone off with nothing more serious than cramp; Heskey had already carried significant minutes from the previous day’s game. Two youngsters who were barely supposed to play therefore combined to beat the Spanish cup holders. The final doubleheader against promoted Paderborn gave us the clearest indication of the likely competitive lineup. In the first match, Jan Thielmann operated centrally in the 4-2-3-1, almost as a hanging striker behind Ache, with Maina starting from the right. The two players who had spent much of camp appearing to compete for the same position were suddenly on the pitch together. For 45 minutes, it worked rather well. Paderborn defended deeply and initially struggled to connect their own buildup. Köln controlled the match and eventually took the lead when Maina launched Ache into space. Ache, despite having the equally free El Mala available alongside him, decided that sharing was unnecessary and finished himself. Then halftime arrived and Köln apparently left their structure in the locker room. Mensah lost possession, Krauß committed the foul trying to repair the damage, and Batista Meier curled the resulting free kick around a badly organized wall. Santiago Castañeda was then allowed to head home a Curda cross before Batista Meier’s outstanding first touch eliminated Castro-Montes and created Curda’s goal for 3-1. Fourteen minutes. Match reversed. El Mala later won and converted a penalty, and Köln regained some composure after Schwäbe loudly informed everyone of his opinion, but the first game finished 3-2 in favor of the East Westphalians. Then the second Köln team went out, led at halftime, lost the plot after the break as well, and somehow turned a 2-1 advantage into a 4-3 defeat. Waldschmidt scored twice from the No. 10 position. Jóhannesson scored as well. Fürst and Niang impressed down the right. Paderborn still won. Both Köln teams had played good first halves; both then endured roughly 20-minute spells in which the distances, concentration and adherence to the match plan deteriorated sharply. One week before competitive football, Köln’s problem was no longer discovering the shape. It was keeping it. Winners from camp, Köln Linton Maina, RW It’s really been quite the saga. During Köln’s 2023/24 relegation campaign, most of us wondered aloud whether Maina would ever truly augment his game to the Bundesliga level. The raw speed was never in dispute. Maina looked like a dangerous Bundesliga athlete without consistently looking like a dangerous Bundesliga attacker. When the FC went down, one could reasonably wonder whether the second tier simply represented the level at which all that acceleration would finally produce enough tangible output. The answer initially appeared to be yes. Maina contributed 14 scorer points to the 2024/25 promotion campaign, returned to the Bundesliga with considerably more credibility, and then proceeded to endure his weakest Köln season. A broken rib didn’t help, but neither did the hierarchy. His league minutes fell to roughly 1,000 after he had exceeded 1,900 in each of the previous three seasons. Maina started only nine times, came off the bench 15 times and finished with two goals and two assists. Even after Wagner took over late in the campaign, five substitute appearances and two starts produced no direct goal involvement. The player who once needed to prove he could augment his game for the Bundesliga had instead spent much of his second crack at it proving surprisingly easy to leave out. That makes this summer’s reversal especially interesting. Maina entered preparation surrounded by departure speculation and exits it with a legitimate claim on the starting XI. Wagner has stopped asking him to remain glued to the right touchline and instead allows him to drift inward, stay connected to Ache and hunt second balls while the right-back advances outside him. Maina says the role makes him feel considerably more involved. It looks that way too. He scored against Real Sociedad, repeatedly surfaced in central spaces and benefited from a coach who has known him since the Baumgart days and has made his confidence explicit. Said El Mala can keep the width and attack defenders on the left. Maina can go looking for the game on the right. Apparently the solution to getting more out of Linton Maina was to stop insisting that he remain where everyone could easily find him. Luca Waldschmidt, SS No joke. No typo. The former Freiburg man is back from the dead. No more Luca “Wald-shite” puns this season. Wagner appears to have located a functioning footballer underneath all the accumulated frustration. Waldschmidt scored and created another against Rheinsüd, traded a goal and assist with Said El Mala against Bergisch Gladbach, struck again against Real Sociedad and then finished preseason by scoring twice from the No. 10 position against Paderborn. That’s four direct goal involvements after the first three tests. By the end of preparation, the evidence pile had become annoyingly difficult for the author to dismiss. Fine, Luca. We surrender. For now. There remains a reason nobody should start chiseling his name into the starting XI. Waldschmidt is still much more convincing when another striker occupies defenders in front of or alongside him than when asked to function as the actual attacking reference himself. That makes Ache—and now Dallinga—the more natural options at nine, while the competition behind them has become rather ridiculous. Bülter spent much of camp producing from the same No. 10 zone, Thielmann’s late central conversion gave Wagner another solution behind Ache, and Maina’s revival on the right further crowds the attacking picture. Waldschmidt has undoubtedly won himself back into serious consideration. He has not, however, won a position that anyone appears prepared to leave unattended. Jan Thielmann, RW Talk about a redemption arc. Thielmann entered last season carrying the sort of expectations that accompany a homegrown player who has already accumulated years of Bundesliga experience without ever quite making one attacking position his own. Three goals and two assists did little to settle the matter. By the end of the campaign, frustration over his role had grown sufficiently that he sought clarity from Wagner, and there were perfectly reasonable questions over where exactly the 24-year-old still fit. Right wing? Second striker? Useful squad piece? Thielmann had become one of those players everyone still liked having around without anyone being entirely certain what Köln were supposed to do with him. Preseason finally supplied an answer. Wagner began pulling Thielmann inside and, by the first Paderborn match, had him operating centrally underneath Ache as something closer to a hanging striker than a conventional No. 10. It suited him. Ache occupied the center-backs and gave Köln the physical reference point. Thielmann could attack the spaces around him, arrive aggressively in the box and use the directness that has always been more convincing than asking him to manufacture play from a standing start on the touchline. Maina’s reinvention on the right only made the shift more logical. A player who entered the summer looking vulnerable in the hierarchy may now begin the season in the starting XI at a position nobody would have projected for him a few months ago. That’s one hell of a way to win an argument about where you belong. Marius Bülter, LW The author’s initial hyperbole when it came to reporting on Bülter’s transfer last summer got toned down considerably in the editing mix. Fair enough, but there simply wasn’t anything hyperbolic about how good the Ibbenbüren native is. The star of the Schalke 2022/23 relegation campaign got badly mismanaged during his Hoffenheim stint and totally defied his age bracket with Köln last season. Four goals in his first three friendlies were enough to ensure that last season’s late surge no longer looked like the final kick of an aging forward. At 33, Bülter was supposed to be sliding down this depth chart. Instead, the eminently lovable bastard keeps climbing it. Paul Okon-Engstler, CM The author cops to feeling shocked. He had zero faith in this kid when he arrived. All the talk felt about as hyperbolic as it could possibly get. Okon-Engstler looked increasingly comfortable as the natural controlling presence in midfield, wore the captain’s armband against Hertha and then earned a place alongside Krauß in the strongest Paderborn XI. The leap from Sydney remains significant and nobody should pretend the Bundesliga will be kind to him, but Wagner clearly trusts the 21-year-old’s positioning, composure and willingness to assume responsibility. What initially looked like another development signing now looks suspiciously like a player with the inside track on a starting job. Alessio Castro-Montes, RB Where the hell was this last season? Whatever happened last season, this summer’s version has looked considerably closer to the player Köln thought they were getting. Castro-Montes supplied two assists against Bergisch Gladbach and then increasingly seized the right-back job once Sebulonsen went down, looking particularly useful in Wagner’s asymmetric attacking structure. With Maina drifting inward, the Belgian is encouraged to attack the vacated lane outside him, a role that suits his instincts far better than asking him to behave like a conservative full-back. Sebulonsen’s injury opened the door. Castro-Montes has spent preseason making a rather persuasive case that it shouldn’t automatically close again. Luka Lochoshvili, CB He’s just plain good old-fashioned effing good. A big hulking Georgian center back who looks like the love child of Jeff Chabot and Nikola Soldo. The resemblance isn’t merely aesthetic. Lochoshvili attacks aerial balls like somebody has personally offended him, brings a wonderfully uncomplicated physicality to the duel and still possesses enough quality on his left foot to start attacks rather than merely terminate them. By the end of camp, he and Simpson-Pusey looked like Wagner’s preferred central-defensive pairing. Sometimes scouting doesn’t require a spreadsheet. Sometimes you just find a massive Georgian bastard who wins things and slap a jersey on him. Losers from camp, Köln Ísak Johannesson, CM The Icelandic midfielder lived up to the hype initially before dipping in form for most of the second half of last season. Kwasniok’s benching of him was initially attributed to Kwasniok being the type of overthinker who tried to talk his shoelaces into getting tied. Jóhannesson finished the campaign without consistently controlling matches. Camp was perfectly okay without ever becoming convincing enough to settle anything. Krauß steadily established himself while Okon-Engstler made a far stronger case than expected. By the time Wagner assembled his strongest-looking side against Paderborn, Jóhannesson wasn’t in the double six. Nobody has buried him on the depth chart, but for a player who entered last season with considerable hype, “still very much in the conversation” constitutes a fairly disappointing destination. Rav van den Berg, CB Name recognition doesn’t do it here. Rav is not Sepp. Last season proved that. The €8m arrival was supposed to provide Köln with a young defensive leader, but injuries, suspension and uneven form instead turned his first season into a prolonged argument against the billing. Preseason hasn’t supplied the dramatic response one might have hoped for either. Simpson-Pusey and Lochoshvili increasingly looked like Wagner’s preferred pairing, while van den Berg remained a challenger rather than an automatic selection. There’s still too much talent here to write him off, but reputations don’t defend Bundesliga strikers. At some point Rav has to start winning the job on his own surname. Sebastian Sebulonsen, RB Already on the downward trajectory last season, the Norwegian has now most assuredly lost his starting place. Injury certainly didn’t help, but Castro-Montes did considerably more than merely occupy the vacancy. The Belgian grew increasingly comfortable in Wagner’s asymmetric setup and offers exactly the attacking interpretation required when Maina drifts inside from the right. Sebulonsen remains the more conservative option and will undoubtedly have opportunities over a long season. For the moment, however, he isn’t returning from injury to reclaim his job. He’s returning to discover somebody else has redecorated the office. Imad Rondic, CF Yes, one can be perfectly forgiven for forgetting that Rondic still draws his paychecks from this club. One can even be forgiven for forgetting that he was once part of the team in the first place. Köln certainly appear to be doing their best to help everyone forget. The Bosnian wasn’t even among the 24 professionals presented at the season-opening festivities, and the club continues searching for a permanent buyer. At this stage, Rondic isn’t competing for minutes so much as haunting the payroll. Every squad needs a forgotten man. Köln’s apparently still has direct deposit. Tactical scout, Köln The Paderborn doubleheader looked to sharpen the hierarchy. The final tactical picture consequently looks considerably clearer than it did when camp opened. The 4-2-3-1 is the base. The positioning of the players, along with some judgement calls, is explained in the above section. There are still holes. Köln continue to need more authority and control at six. The loss of Jakub Kamiński has not yet been fully addressed. Ache can become isolated when the midfield-to-attack connection breaks down. The Paderborn collapse showed how quickly a decent structure can become irrelevant if too many players stop doing the same thing at once. That last point matters more than any formation diagram. Wagner’s 4-2-3-1 looks pleasantly conventional on the team sheet and considerably busier once Köln actually have the ball. Simpson-Pusey and Lochoshvili can spread the first phase, Krauß supplies the aggressive central reference ahead of them and Castro-Montes has license to advance from the right. The important thing is that the players ahead of him do not all occupy the same corridor. This is where Maina’s summer renaissance becomes especially useful. El Mala, Maina, Castro-Montes, and Mensah all have totally different profiles. The formation is an intentionally lopsided attacking structure. Thielmann then makes the whole arrangement even stranger. Wagner used him centrally against Paderborn almost as a second striker underneath Ache rather than a traditional stationary ten. That suits both players. Ache can occupy the center-backs, run beyond them or receive direct balls with his back to goal, while Thielmann attacks the spaces created around him. Waldschmidt and Bülter offer their own interpretations of the ten slot, but Thielmann really, really introduces an element of unpredictability. There are several different ways this could work. Lineup–KOE (PROJECTED) The unresolved midfield position changes the flavor of everything above. Krauß presently looks safest because somebody has to supply the running, aggression and defensive resistance underneath all those adventurous attacking movements. Okon-Engstler would give Wagner a more natural controlling presence beside him and, based on preseason, probably owns the narrowest lead for the second spot. Jóhannesson offers more progressive passing and attacking inclination. Choosing between them isn’t simply a personnel decision. It determines how much freedom Köln can safely grant the five players ahead. The back three remains the emergency drawer Wagner can pull open whenever all of this begins feeling a little too adventurous. Pauli joined Simpson-Pusey and Lochoshvili against Sociedad and the adjustment worked without requiring Köln to abandon their broader possession principles. Castro-Montes becomes an especially obvious wing-back in such a system. Wagner nevertheless appears to prefer getting the extra attacker onto the pitch whenever possible. Given the number of revived offensive players demanding minutes, one can hardly blame him. None of this looks especially mysterious when it works. The spacing makes sense. The asymmetric wings make sense. Thielmann’s central role makes sense. Castro-Montes charging into Maina’s vacated lane makes sense. Even the seemingly unfinished midfield has enough different profiles to give Wagner choices. Then Paderborn happened. Both Köln teams demonstrated the same unpleasant feature: once the distances stretched and the first few individual errors arrived, everybody began solving different problems at the same time. The full-back stepped, the midfielder chased, the center-back reacted, another player stopped tracking the next movement and suddenly the carefully assembled geometry had disappeared. That’s rather more concerning than losing two friendlies. Wagner has already built something coherent. His problem is ensuring that the structure survives the first ten minutes in which Bundesliga football becomes chaotic. Science, data and probabilities can get everyone to the correct starting positions. The players still have to stay there when somebody punches them in the mouth. That’s the bet with Köln. The author still rather likes it. GGFN  |  Peter Weis