SC Freiburg was very active of this summer's transfer period. Like most years, Freiburg lost a few key players from the 2013-14 squad; most notably, Oliver Baumann and Matthias Ginter. The season prior they lost the likes of; Rosenthal, Flum, Makiadi, Caligiuri and Kruse.
In total Freiburg made 9 inclusions, most importantly they were able to make Admir Mehmedi's stay a permanent one. The Swiss international was Freiburg's best player last season after he was allowed to play on loan from Ukrainian first division side, Dynamo Kiev. After such an outstanding first season, it was a surprise to many that he decided to stay with the small side lurching from the Black Forest. He was able to lift his game to another level near the end of the campaign to bring his side out of the relegation zone and keep their Bundesliga status alive for yet another season. Mehmedi ended up finishing with 12 goals and 4 assists to his name, so it is surprising to many that Kiev allowed him to leave for the small figure of €4.4M.
Freiburg has brought in another Swiss international in the form of Roman Bürki. The 23 year old goalkeeper will take over the gloves from talented keeper, Oliver Baumann who departed for Hoffenheim in the summer. He will have a battle with Sebastian Mielitz to determine who will become the number 1 keeper. Mielitz came for costless in from Bremen in the summer, and is likely to be Christian Streich's 2nd choice as Bürki started in goal for the club's opening two fixtures and played rather well.
After losing Matthias Ginter to Borussia Dortmund, Streich needed to strengthen up the centre of defence, and this was emphasised with the inclusion of 3 new centre-backs to their squad. Stefan Mitrovic came in from Benfica for a fee believed to be around €1.5M. He was once touted as 'the next big thing' in terms of centre-backs, but never was able to get regular game time at the Portuguese giants. Freiburg has also brought in Marc Torrejón from Kaiserslautern for a fee of €1.25M and Marc-Oliver Kempf from Frankfurt for 900 thousand Euros. The latter being the preferred option (in the opening two outings), partnering existing centre-back, Pavel Krmaš.
Full back, Sascha Riether has returned back to Freiburg, where he previously spent 5 seasons at the beginning of his professional career. Riether returns after a fairly successful spell in England and hopes to provide cover for the likes of Sorg and Christian Günter in the full back position. He has not been in either of the two opening match day squads due to a tendon strain.
Mike Frantz has also made the move down south to Freiburg after his spell at Nürnberg came to a disappointing end with his team finishing off in relegation last season. His move came at a price of around €1.5. He brings to the team; experience, fight, determination and a lot of grit.
Others that have come into the first team squad are; Dani Schahin who comes on loan from Mainz. He previously spent time with Fortuna Düsseldorf in the first division a couple of season's back. He will hope to provide the necessary fire power to Freiburg's lacklustre forward setup. Caleb Stanko and Maximilian Philipp have also joined the first team squad after previously playing for the side's reserve team.
Freiburg will be without 13 squad members who took part in the 2013-14 campaign, with the most well-known absentees being; Gelson Fernandes, Fallou Diagne, Mike Hanke, Vaclav Pilar and Francis Coquelin. Pilar and Coquelin have returned to their parent clubs after being let on loan to Freiburg last season. Of the players just mentioned, Fernandes will probably be the biggest loss, as he was the only player they lost (from the players mentioned above) who managed to hold down a regular spot last season. Freiburg look to have covered his loss in the centre of midfield, by placing last season's record transfer recruit, Vladimir Darida in his position.
The departures of Ginter and Baumann will really hurt Freiburg this season. Admittedly the loss of two key players is less than the five key players they lost the season earlier. Freiburg will once again rely on Mehmedi and Schmid to provide most of the attacking threat, but the likes of Sebastian Kerk and Felix Klaus are destined for further improvement and should be greater forces this season. No one can really ever predict the fortunes of Freiburg. They have a coach of the finest quality who should keep them afloat once more.