AUDIO: St. Paulis coach Alexander Blessin: “We take a good feeling with us” (3 min)
As of: December 22, 2025 2:26 p.m
FC St. Pauli has had a turbulent half-year in the Bundesliga. After a good start to the season, there were nine bankruptcies in a row before the turnaround was achieved before Christmas with four unbeaten competitive games in a row. Despite the slight upswing, the situation and development of the neighborhood club remain delicate.
A win against city rivals. Completely convincing and 2-0 is actually still too low. St. Pauli made a big statement on the second matchday with their success at HSV. Not only the result, but especially the way in which coach Alexander Blessin’s team performed in the Volksparkstadion raised hopes of a worry-free season on the Reeperbahn.
Holger Stanislawski, once captain of the club and later, as a coach, architect of the promotion from the third division to the first division, then described his former club’s footballing and tactically mature performance in the Volksparkstadion with the appropriate term “adult”. At this point it seemed as if St. Pauli, who had impressed in the previous season primarily with great defensive work, should also be able to take the next steps in terms of play.
Especially since the Blessin team followed up the victory at HSV with a 2-1 win against FC Augsburg. After three days of play and seven points in the account, the sky above the supposedly most sinful mile in the world was full of violins. But then one of the strangest crashes in Bundesliga history followed. Nine defeats in a row raised many questions. Questions that have not all been answered to this day.
St. Pauli with problems at the back and front
First of all, it must be soberly stated that the hamburgers are no longer completely tight. While the neighborhood club had the second-best defense on the first floor last season, it has now landed in the bottom third of the table on this point. 26 goals conceded in 15 games – in the last series there were 19 goals conceded at the same time – are an expression of the somewhat lost stability.
Blessin wanted to develop the team further in terms of football – and seemed to be on the right path. But after seven goals in the first three encounters, only six more goals followed in the following twelve games. Together with 1. FC Heidenheim and 1. FSV Mainz 05, who are still behind 16th place in the table. the Hanseatic League have scored the fewest goals in the upper house.
Video:
No goals and a lot of relegation battle in Mainz (9 min)
Hamburg game loses intensity
Problems at the front. Rear problems. Problems everywhere. Despite supposedly promising summer additions such as director Joel Chima Fujita or attackers Andréas Hountondji, Mathias Pereira Lage and Martijn Kaars, the team far too rarely had a force on the pitch that posed major problems for their opponents. There was a lack of the often cited element of surprise. Of enthusiasm. Of emotionality. At a nuance intensity.
Perhaps a little complacency crept into the Blessin team after the good start. Perhaps there was a premature belief that things could now be sorted out in terms of football that had been taken care of with hard work in the previous season.
Blessin was in demand as a psychologist. He had to get into the heads of his charges. And he seems to have succeeded. “We have brought the players to a certain level in terms of their ideas,” explained the coach after the 0-0 draw in Mainz on Sunday. He now feels again that his team knows how to play, said the 52-year-old. “It’s about stability, it’s about processes, it’s about how I want to define our defensive work,” the coach added.
Loss of permanent employees not compensated
Blessin has undoubtedly struggled with adversity over the past six months. Departures of top performers such as Philipp Treu or Morgan Guilavogui could not be adequately replaced. In addition, there were injury-related absences such as that of defender David Nemeth (only one competitive game) and fluctuations in the performance of regular staff. So even the keeper Nikola Vasilj, who had previously been almost error-free, began to make mistakes in the phase of the crash.
Irvine causes irritation
Added to this was the drama surrounding Captain Jackson Irvine. In terms of sport, the leader’s long absence after foot surgery hurt the Hamburg team a lot. But that wasn’t the only reason why the Australian was a topic at Harald-Stender-Platz for weeks despite being absent from the pitch.
Irvine had publicly demonstrated a clear pro-Palestinian stance. And because supervisory board René Born wrote critical comments in this context under an Instagram post by Irvine’s wife Jemilla Pir, there was even a short mud fight between the captain and the neighborhood club.
Divine keeps calm – and now has to ask questions
Background noise here. Background noise there. Because of course the coaching question also came up at St. Pauli and at St. Pauli during the series of bankruptcies. Blessin, who was still a sought-after coach after being relegated to the league in the previous season, suddenly had to put up with critical questions about his work. The 52-year-old remained confident even in this difficult phase for him. At least publicly. Because: “I no longer knew what day of the week it was,” he now gave an insight into his inner life during the downturn.
The always self-reflective football teacher will certainly look for errors during the short winter break. Because of course he also played a part in St. Pauli being in 16th place with just twelve points after 15 games. But club boss Oke Göttlich, who always held a protective hand over Blessin, should also calmly review the past few months.
This intellectual journey through a sometimes irritating time must also include the analysis of Andreas Bornemann’s purchasing policy. Because the sports director also made mistakes. None of the summer additions have been 100 percent successful yet. In winter, the Millerntor actually needs to be readjusted again in order to be able to rely on a broader squad in the fight to stay in the league.
Blessin wants to continue the “process of small steps”.
The neighborhood club can at least give confidence that the team and coach have freed themselves and, above all, together from a seemingly endless negative spiral. “The last four games plus the Bayern game, which I also thought was very good, give me a lot of hope because we took the right steps,” said Blessin after the Mainz game. But the coach immediately raised a warning finger: “It’s a process of small steps. You have to stick to it and not deviate from it in the slightest.”
The fact that Blessin speaks of a “process of small steps” is a clear indication that the hoped-for next step from last season has not (yet) been achieved. As of now, the people of Hamburg are in a kind of development jam.
