WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027 Relegation Battle Guide: Escaping the Red Rows

Folge 5 SfD Dorfmerkingen – Kommen wir vom Abstiegsplatz runter? — Strategon — YouTube

Folge 5 SfD Dorfmerkingen – Kommen wir vom Abstiegsplatz runter? — Strategon

Most guides about being bad at football are actually about being good at it. A relegation battle is its own genre: every point is doubled in value, every fixture list is read bottom-up, and the winter window is not a luxury but a triage station. This page follows one such January — 12 to 24 January 2026 of a Verbandsliga Württemberg save, where the video’s title asks the only question that matters at this end of the table: do we get off the relegation place? What the screens show is a two-point neighborhood: a six-pointer won away at a fellow struggler, a home thrashing by a promotion-caliber side, and a table that moves the save one row up and then back down. Around the matches run the three levers a bottom-five club actually has — selling a 31-year-old, signing a 24-year-old, and nursing a 14-year-old through his next development step. The other end of the same race is the promotion race guide; where the league sits in the German pyramid is the leagues and licences guide’s territory.

Where does a relegation save stand in the WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027 table?

The answer screen opens automatically after every matchday, and it color-codes the answer. On matchday 15, played 18 January 2026, the Tabelle of the Verbandsliga Württemberg shows a 17-team league with the top two rows tinted green — TSG Tübingen on 31 points, SSV Ehingen-Süd on 30 — and the bottom five rows tinted red: 13th to 17th place. Sportfreunde Dorfmerkingen sit 13th in that block, on 16 points from a 5-1-8 record with 18:30 goals, level on points with VfB Friedrichshafen directly above them and two clear of TSV Weilimdorf below, while Calcio Leinfelden-E. has 10 and FC Rottenburg 4. The results panel on the left lists the save’s own match as «SV Fellbach - Sportfreunde Dorfmerkingen 0:1 (0:1)» in front of 621 spectators.

What the screen does not state is the rulebook behind the red. Five teams are marked, and the episode’s title calls the save’s position an Abstiegsplatz — a relegation place — but the exact number of relegation or playoff spots is never written on these screens. Read the color as the game’s own flag for “you are in it”, and treat the details as league-dependent rather than universal.

How do you steal a six-pointer away from a fellow struggler in WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027?

The fixture list hands the save exactly the game a relegation fight is made of: 11th plays 14th. The pre-match screen frames SV Fellbach against Sportfreunde Dorfmerkingen with both table positions above the crests, and the Teamvergleich panel is honest about the gap: Gesamt 32 to 34 in the save’s favor, but the goalkeeper line reads 3 to 4, Abwehr 12 to 11, and Sturm 10 to 7 for Fellbach. The starting eleven carries its ratings on the pitch — the one name to remember is goalkeeper Robin Lisewski at 4,5, the best rating in the save’s starting eleven.

At half-time the underdog leads 0:1. The Halbzeit screen is the most information-dense moment of the whole episode: 18 January 2026, 13:30, 4 degrees, Max-Graser-Stadion, 621 spectators, and two pairs of dials that explain the state of the legs — Kondition 44 and Frische 85 for the hosts against 56 and 80 for the visitors. Below the pitch the game offers five changes still available and a coach’s line that could hang in every relegation dressing room: «Ein schwaches Spiel, das eigentlich nur besser werden kann.» — a weak game that can only really get better.

The second half belongs to the hosts, and the episode lets you watch the pressure arrive. In stoppage time the attack ends with a card over the pitch: «Über das Tor!» — over the bar. The card names Torben Hohloch, three stars, an xG of 0,18 on the chance, and the verdict «Verfehlt um 1.5 m.» — missed by one and a half metres. That header is the whole away win in one image: the equalizer existed, and it went 1,5 metres too high.

The full-time screen then tells you how unearned the three points were, and this is the part worth studying. Fellbach finish with xG 2,04 against 0,41, five big chances to two, and 55 percent possession — and lose 0:1. The event feed records two yellow cards for the save’s fighters, Daniel Nietzer in the 53rd and Andreas Kraft in the 86th, both «wegen Foulspiels» — for fouls — and the trainer bank’s instructions read «Nehmt die Zweikämpfe an!» — take the duels on. A relegation six-pointer won this way is not a scaling error in the match engine; it is the genre. The promotion race guide shows the same screen type from the other side of the table, where the favorite is the one who has to survive the away day.

What does a 1:4 home defeat do to the table and the week in WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027?

Three days later the league’s promotion chasers come to visit, and the lesson reverses. FC Holzhausen — 4th at kick-off, nine places and a different budget above the save — win 1:4 (0:1) at the Sportanlage Felsenstraße in front of 468 spectators. The full-time screen quantifies the gap without cruelty: xG 0,64 against 1,96, chances 4 to 7, possession 45 to 55. The fourth goal lands in the 86th through Nino Kraus, and two feed lines do the emotional bookkeeping: «Einige Heimfans gehen bereits.» — some home fans are already leaving — and, about a scuffle, «Niko Kunath und Nino Kraus sind heute keine Freunde geworden, jetzt gibt es da noch etwas Klärungsbedarf.» — Niko Kunath and Nino Kraus did not become friends today, and some clearing-up remains. In the save’s own column, striker Daniel Nietzer is the one player with a goal to his name — the single answer his team found all evening.

The arithmetic of a relegation week is printed into the header itself. Before kick-off the screens read 13. against 4.; after the 1:4 they read 14. against 3. — the save has slid one row back into the red block while Holzhausen climb past it into third, and the points stay at 16 because a heavy defeat pays nothing. The Teamfortschritt screen is where the game files the week player by player: goalkeeper Robin Lisewski, the man who stole Fellbach’s six points, carries the starters’ worst mark for this one (a 6,0), the Teamgeist gauge drops by 4, and the fitness dials sit at Kondition 53 and Frische 77. One win, one thrashing, one row down: that is what a relegation week actually costs.

The weekly calendar shows how the days around such a defeat are staged. The week of 19 to 25 January carries the header «9 Tage bis zum Deadline Day.» — nine days to the deadline — and lays the defeat out as its own match card on Wednesday, complete with the 1:4 and the 468 spectators. Monday and Thursday are Weiterbildung days whose text promises «Sie arbeiten hart und erhalten einen Managerpunkt.» — and Friday brings a card titled Börse informing you that 35-year-old striker Daniel Nietzer «hat ein neues Hobby». Across the bottom, the laufende Verhandlungen list tracks the two open window moves: full-back Alpertunga Polat, departure favored at 90 percent, and attacking midfielder Luis Vetter, arrival at 73 percent and round three of four. The calendar itself is a scheduling tool in its own right — the weekly schedule guide walks it — and the same January stretch belongs to the wider winter break routine.

Which January deals does the window put in front of a struggling club?

The first lever is selling, and the Vereinsverhandlung screen on 12 January shows it at full resolution. The direction is labeled Verkauf — sale: TuS Ennepetal’s manager Leon Enzmann offers 120.000 € plus 15 percent resale participation for Jakob Weissensteiner, a 31-year-old attacker rated 4,2 stars, while the save demands 220.000 €. A note under the split explains where the money trickles: «Das restliche Geld geht an die früheren Ausbildungsvereine des Spielers.» — the rest goes to the player’s former youth clubs. On the right, Enzmann’s card shows a budget increase of 235.000 € and an interest gauge reading 83, with the quote «Wir würden den Spieler extrem gerne haben.» The save’s own negotiator reputation sits in the corner as «Zocker» — a chancer. The button «Aktionspunkt einsetzen» in the corner is where manager points turn into negotiation leverage.

The mirror image arrives on 23 January: the same screen set to Kauf — purchase. This time FC Memmingen II, through manager Esad Kahrić, demand 120.000 € for the 24-year-old attacking midfielder Luis Vetter while the save bids 90.000 €, and the mood quote reads «Zwischen unseren Vorstellungen liegen leider Welten.» — our positions are, unfortunately, worlds apart. The negotiator reputation has meanwhile slid from Zocker to «Chaot». The economics panel on the right keeps the club honest: Budgetbelastung 90.000 €, Restbudget 540.000 €, and the fee structure with its resale share and youth-club split works exactly as in the sale.

The second half of a signing is the player’s own contract, and the Angebot akzeptiert screen of the same day shows Vetter’s terms going through: contract to 30 June 2028, Grundgehalt 52.000 € per year — down from his previous 60.000 — a Handgeld of 19.000 €, win and appearance bonuses of 380 € and 240 €, a promotion bonus of 1.900 €, and a promise line that fits a relegation club word for word: «Du stehst fast immer auf dem Platz.» — you are almost always on the pitch. Two details deserve a pause. The fee table carries a row called «Vertragsauflösung Abstieg» — contract dissolution on relegation — which the negotiation toggles; and the right column states «Als Nächstes steht noch die Einigung mit dem Verein an.» — the club-to-club agreement is still to come — plus «Es ist kein weiterer Verein interessiert!» — nobody else is interested. How the player-contract screen works line by line is the contract negotiations guide’s job; the window around it is the transfer window guide’s, and both sides of the money ledger live in the transfer market guide.

Where do manager points come from during a relegation fight in WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027?

The third lever is the currency under everything else. The top bar shows the save’s manager, Klaus Maus, holding 6 manager points through the January screens, and the footage catches two of the inflows. The first is a Stufenänderung — a development step — for the youth player Vanja Vukadin: 14 years old, U17 attacking midfielder, 1,6 stars, Spielertyp Teamspieler, market value 80.000 €. The right half of the screen animates his old level into a new one and pays out the line this page’s economy runs on: «1 Managerpunkt erhalten!» — one manager point received. The second inflow sits in the weekly calendar above: each Weiterbildung day promises a manager point for the manager’s own further education. Where those points are spent — interventions, boosts, and the negotiation button seen above — is the action points guide’s territory.

That is one January at the bottom of a Verbandsliga: a red-tinted table, an away heist with an xG debt attached, a home defeat that empties part of a small stand, a sale that won’t meet its price, a signing that says «you are almost always on the pitch», and a 14-year-old whose development step pays exactly one manager point. Whether the save gets off the Abstiegsplatz is the question the episode title asks — the answer belongs to a matchday after this footage ends. What the stretch does document is the shape of the fight: at this end of the table, the morale and satisfaction guide’s meters and the winter window’s ledger matter as much as anything that happens on the pitch.