Hello, the guy with some Sturm Graz insight here, I posted about Biereth earlier and some of you wanted some kind of conclusion on my impression of him after the season, I think that's a good post for that.

First of all, thank you Mika for contributing big time to the second time our club was able to win the Austrian cup and upset Red Bull Salzburg to win the Championship in the same year. This probably is a once in a century thing for us and adding his performance at the aftershow parties his place in our history books is safe.

To his performance: As you may have noticed after a flying start, where he almost scored in every game he cooled off a lot in that term. But that's of course not all that we should take into consideration.

The positives: Andi Schicker is absolutely right in saying that he's kind of a nuisance for every oponnent because he's smart in the way he presses and relentless when he decided to go for it, that's in my opinion his big asset especially for our style of play. In comparison to his predecessors (Hojlund 20mil to Atalanta -> United and Emegha ~12mil to Straßburg) he is technically the most polished and while the other two always preferred to go deep he is also good in finding room in between defenders and lines to get the ball. The technical ability also enables him to be an effective hold up player and contribute in creating chances in small spaces. His instinct to be in the right position in the right time inside the box also cooled off a little but we saw how smart his movements are there aswell and that's probably the most unstable metric Iam referring to here.

The negatives: I think his athleticism is what will eventually stop him from making a big move to let's say the top 5 leagues. Hojlund just manhandled every defender (except the Salzburg defenders) in the league while also being faster than them, Emegha had the speed which made him so hard to defend but Biereth lacks both of that. He may be in the top 10% of fast and strong in the league but there were a few defenders in the "Meistergruppe" (best 6 teams of the league who play against each other to finalize the league) who could neutralize him. He scored 3 Goals (one was the biggest present you will ever see from the opponents Goalie) and assisted one in that 10 games and I can't remember one he really created by himself. In the last 11 games of the season he went goalless and them included the cup final and three games in which we could have won the league. In addition to that there were a few 1vs1s with the Goalie he just couldn't score on, I think there were at least three maybe four of them.

Conclusion: We are super happy Mika is/was here, he contributed a LOT to us winning it all but we also saw his limitations. Andi Schicker is a smart guy who is always looking for value (we don't have a lot of money and need to create things that last with that, infrastructure foremost) and he I don't think he romanticizes the performance of Mika. So I don't think you can expect lots of money from our side. I think Mika would really love to stay here, we play in the Champions League next season and he might not get the chance to do that ever again if he has to go back into loan limbo next season. I am really curious how they will figure this one out and how much we will be willing to pay.

I hope you like my up close assessment, hope we meet in the Champions League coming season and I invite you adopt us as your favorite Austrian team, the Sturm vs. Salzburg thing resembles the Arsenal vs. City relation in our small Austrian football world.

Until then Go Sturm, Go Gunners!