SpVgg Greuther Fürth – Top second tier side in top flight

Founded in 1903 in the Gasthaus Balzer close to the Fürth town hall, SpVgg Greuther Fürth – the name of the club since a merger in 1996 – has been part of the history of German football for 118 years. In the early days of the Franconian side, the German sports club with the highest membership at the start of the 20^th century with 3,000 members from Fürth, with its population of 130,000, were quickly on the right track. Just eleven years after the football section was set up, following on from the Fürth gymnastics club TV Fürth 1860, the Green and Whites won their first German league title in 1914; the second and third followed in 1926 and 1929.

TOP SECoND DVISION TEAM

Turbulent times separate the three championship titles and leading the all-time second division table today, with a 161-point lead over second-placed FC St. Pauli: From the top flight through to relegation to the the Landesliga due to financial reasons and back up again, the supporters of the Fürth team with their home ground of the Sportpark Ronhof (capacity: 16,626) have experienced a lot in the previous century. The foundation for the positive development of the last 25 years was laid in 1996. The two teams TSV Vestenbergsgreuth and SpVgg Fürth merged to form Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth. A year later, the Clover Leaves were promoted to the second division and they have been there ever since with the exception of the 2012/13 season. Since the introduction of the second Bundesliga division in 1974 the team from Ronhof has clocked up 1,126 games in 32 seasons.

last season

Since the end of last season, picking up points in the all-time table of the second division has come to an end for the time being. Fürth did end the first half of the 2020/21 season in fifth place with a significant deficit of seven points to the then league leaders Hamburg SV, but an almost perfect second half of the season including the run-in brought the return to the Bundesliga for the Leitl team. With 35 points from 17 games with only two defeats – top spot in the second half of the season table – Greuther Fürth did not make any major slip-ups in 2021 and ended up in second place behind VfL Bochum on matchday 34. On 23 May, the team under Stefan Leitl showed nerves of steel beating Fortuna Düsseldorf 3-2 with ten men, while Holstein Kiel lost to SV Darmstadt – thus removing any obstacle to celebrating promotion.

STRENGTHS

As previously mentioned, the Clover Leaves shone last season with their strong nerves and comeback qualities particularly during the run-in – only SV Darmstadt picked up more points after being behind than Fürth – as well as great consistency in the second half of the season. There were only six defeats after 34 matchdays – the best in the league. The constantly impressive performances on the road also played a significant role with the highest number of points being picked up in the league (33). In addition, the Franconians were only beaten twice away from home.

The formula for success in the mostly impressive performances of the club from Regnitz is also down to the strength in depth in the squad. The best example of that is the key element in the Fürth team – the attack. Alongside the strikers Branimir Hrgota (16 goals, 8 assists) and Havard Nielsen (11 goals, 6 assists), the ex FC Bayern homegrown player Julian Green (9 goals, 2 assists), Sebastian Ernst, Dickson Abiama and Paul Seguin (7 goals each) are six other players who regularly scored for Fürth.

The key to the large number of goals was surprisingly not just down to the attack but also the Clover Leaves defence: With the compact 4-3-1-2 formation favoured by head coach Stefan Leitl, that would seem to suggest a focus on midfield, the full-backs are the key players for numerous Fürth attacking moves. The backs in 2020/21 were the U21 European Champion David Raum on the left and Marco Meyerhöfer on the right and they produced an impressive 24 assists.

weak points

What was part of the success story for the Leitl team is partly passé for the new campaign. In the aforementioned David Raum (TSG Hoffenheim) and Sebastian Ernst (Hannover 96) two players are leaving Fürth who always contributed to attacking creativity. Paul Jaeckel (Union Berlin) and Mergim Mavraj, the only player to celebrate promotion twice with Greuther Fürth, are two defenders leaving the club who have ensured the stability of the defence in the past.

How the team from Franconia can compensate for the departure of key players is unclear at this stage of the transfer window. Gideon Jung (Hamburg SV), Nils Seufert (Arminia Bielefeld) a Max Christiansen (Waldhof Mannheim) have been announced as new signings so far.

the record

In the history of German football the Black and Reds have not played the Green and Whites very often. There were two meetings in the 2012/13 Bundesliga season with the Werkself having the upper hand in a head-to-head comparison. The first win over the Clover Leaves for the Werkself was secured by a brace from Sidney Sam in a 2-0 win at the BayArena. The away game at the Sportpark Ronhof ended in a goalless draw.