Mainz 05's Secret Recipe: The Club Who Sack Managers Deep Into a Season

Mainz have a history of sacking managers deep into the Bundesliga season and then going on to avoid the drop, so we took a look at some recent examples of this occurrence.

2014-15 Bundesliga Season

Sacked: Kasper Hjulmand

Replacement: Martin Schmidt

Final standing in the Bundesliga: 11th (40 points)

The Details:

When Martin Schmidt took over Mainz, they were in 14th place and were level with none other than Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund on twenty-two points and had only one win in thirteen games.

Immediately, the impact was felt as he won 3-1 against Eintracht Frankfurt in the league in his first game in charge. Further victories against Köln, Augsburg, Freiburg and Schalke meant that the 05ers were somewhat comfortable in staying up in the end. With a five point lead over Hamburg in 16th after the final matchday, Mainz managed to stay up in Germany's top flight with some relative ease thanks to this managerial change.

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2020-21 Bundesliga Season

Sacked: Jan-Moritz Lichte

Replacement: Bo Svensson

Final standing in the Bundesliga: 12th (39 points)

The Details:

This season was one for the history books, often dubbed by some fans of Germany's elite division as "The Greatest Escape". When Bo Svensson took over on the fourth of January 2021 at Mainz, they had only won one single game the entire season and were (with Schalke) deep within a heavy winless streak.

Despite things not instantly turning out for the good, as they had to wait a few weeks to finally win again amongst losses to Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt, they finally managed to win against RB Leipzig (3-2) on the 23rd of January.

Following suit were wins against Union Berlin, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Freiburg, Hoffenheim, Köln, Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg on the final day. The most impressive win (not previously mentioned) during this period was against the champions (and treble holders at the time) Bayern Munich who were beaten 2-1 at the MEWA arena by Svensson's side.

2023-24 Bundesliga Season

Sacked: Jan Siewert

Replacement: Bo Henriksen

Current place in the Bundesliga: 16th (26 points)

The Details:

For Mainz, their solution to withstanding trouble in the league has consisted of one sole thing: Hiring a Danish manager named Bo. In all seriousness, Bo Henriksen has done a solid job at one of the previous beating boys of the division.

The reason behind Mainz hiring yet another Dane to save them was that Jan Siewert (Mainz's interim-made-permanent head coach) had only won once in the Bundesliga during his stint at the carnival club.

In Henriksen's first game as coach at the 05ers, he won 1-0 against Augsburg. He then lost to Bayer Leverkusen and was smashed to pieces 8-1 against Bayern Munich within the space of two weeks.

Despite this, Mainz somehow managed to recover and have won against Bochum, Darmstadt, Hoffenheim and drew against RB Leipzig within the last four match weeks. This has left them on 26 points (one off Bochum in 15th) and unbeaten in their last four outings in the league. Overall, they are favourites (out of the bottom four) to clinch the automatically safe spot in fifteenth.