Many question marks: Dynamo Dresden not a favorite for promotion

This time, everything should be different. After two missed promotion chances, hardly anything is the same at Dynamo Dresden. A new coach in Thomas Stamm, a new sporting director in Thomas Brendel and ten new additions to 16 departures. What that means for the start of the season on Sunday (1.30pm/MagentaSport) - question marks. In any case, the preparation left plenty of room for improvement.

"I didn't come here to play another year in the 3rd division. And that's not the club's ambition either," Stamm said in the podcast "Schwarz-Gelb" by "Sächsische Zeitung" and "Radio Dresden". With the coach brought in from SC Freiburg II, they are hoping for modern, more varied and, above all, more successful soccer on the Elbe than under Markus Anfang. However, it is surprising that Stamm formulated the season's goal of promotion so clearly.

New arrivals must take on responsibility

They actually wanted to hold back on this after it only led to the team breaking under the pressure in the decisive phase last season. How the new players at Dynamo deal with this remains to be seen.

In goalkeeper Tim Schreiber (RB Leipzig), Aljaz Casar (Hallescher FC), Vinko Sapina (Rot-Weiß Essen) Philip Heise (Karlsruher SC) and Christoph Daferner (1. FC Nürnberg), experienced players have arrived who should - and must - take on responsibility alongside the established Claudio Kammerknecht, Niklas Hauptmann and re-elected captain Stefan Kutschke.

First and foremost, Dynamo need to create goalscoring opportunities and make the most of them. This has been a problem for the Saxons over the past two years. And the test matches also showed that little progress has been made in this respect. They still blamed it on the tough training sessions, which resulted in a lack of concentration and mental freshness.

The face of the team will still change. According to Brendel, two to three players are still to come, especially for the offense. Stamm, known for his successful work with young players, is therefore on the lookout for "talents from the first and second divisions as well as the regional league." However, quality comes first here, they don't want to afford quick fixes at Dynamo.

How well the new Dynamo is already harmonizing is questionable. "We're not yet where we want to be in terms of content," said Stamm, but emphasized: "But we're at the point where we can get three points in Cologne on Sunday." He preferred not to use the word "must".