Stuttgart's struggles

Even before the season has begun, Armin Veh has a headache. Stuttgart's 2-0 defeat at second division VfL Bochum proved to be the second top-flight casualty of this season's German Cup.

Mainz's exit at the hands of third-division Chemnitz highlighted teething problems as the club face a transitional period after long-serving coach Thomas Tuchel stepped down and Kasper Hjulmand took over.

Stuttgart's struggles are in stark contrast. The endless merry-go-round of coaches in the last three years has given the club very little stability, and this campaign has started with yet another wrong step.

This season, the experienced, but dubiously successful, Veh returns to Baden-Wuerttemberg for his second spell with the club. He won the league title in 2008 as Stuttgart coach, but the problems facing him this time around are somewhat different.

Having narrowly escaped relegation last season, Veh has worked tirelessly in pre-season to enforce the same hard-working ethos as predecessor Huub Stevens. After a leaky spell under Thomas Schneider, Stevens, did his job earning Stuttgart enough points to avoid dropping into the bottom-three.

But the question of a true Stuttgart vision remains. Has Veh been appointed to continue the short-term shoring up, or to progress the club into a genuine force?

Caution over craft?

Given the plethora of options at Stuttgart's disposal, attack should be an area where the Reds thrive. A host of players have also been signed to offer some necessary squad depth.

Filip Kostic, the six million euro ($8 million) signing from FC Groningen, is the perfect example of such a signing, and is looking to be the replacement for the departing Ibrahima Traore.

The Guinean wide man was a real maverick in Huub Stevens' defensively sound system, and proved to be one of Stuttgart's saviours towards the end of last season. Traore's acceleration and raw speed was a dynamic contrast to the stodgy and solid backbone that the team have become known for in recent seasons.

So with the departure of the winger leaving a void for Kostic to fill, it seems a little premature to criticise the Serbian attacker after such a tepid, collective display, particulary as he only teamed up with Stuttgart a matter of days ago. However, the the lack of creativity and positivity in Stuttgart's play leaves a looming cloud of concern.

Veh's team is constructed around a strong defensive base and a powerful transition into attack, which will mean a few of the club's most inventive players will miss out. There's no room for slouches or luxuries - and Veh's team selection reflected his hard-working demands.

Take the 24-year-old attacking-midfielder Daniel Didavi, who was picked instead of Alexandru Maxim. Didavi is a willing tracker and physically strong player, but lacks the broad range of technical qualities that Maxim possesses in abundance.

Trained in Spain as a teenager, Maxim plays with a delicacy and thought that has often carved open opposition defenses. But the once breath-of-fresh-air playmaker, signed to bring flair to Stuttgart's side, has since fallen out-of-favor as the demands of the team have changed.

Lack of strategy

Through four coaches in 12 months - Bruno Labbadia, Schneider, Stevens and Veh - Stuttgart's all-round goal has descended from Champions League to simply surviving week-by-week in the league.

Having succumbed to defeat in the German Cup, the pressure on Veh's job increases. If Veh truly is a long-term candidate, the 53-year-old should have a little more time to complete his plan. The signs in the early months appear to suggest just a continuation of Stevens' conservative approach though.

Without a clear, defined strategy, Stuttgart's problems in recruitment - adding players who don't fit the puzzle, as in the case of Maxim - will only fuel more instability and uncertainty, should results turn against Veh in the long-run this season.

It's no surprise that discontent has also spread to the boardroom. Sporting director Fredi Bobic remains under supervision by a task force that includes members of the supervisory board and former players, like Thomas Hitzlsperger.

There is frustration at Stuttgart's business in the market under Bobic, both in terms of players and coaches. With the club having tapped into relations with regional investors in order to meet licence regulations, clumsiness in the transfer market is the last thing Stuttgart need.

The problem of balance

What Veh needs to establish, and urgently, is a coherent way of playing; blending the creative middle-to-front players that the club has in abundance with a defensive unit in need of a shake-up and perhaps a fresh face.

With Maxim, 18-year-old Timo Werner and ball-playing midfielder Moritz Leitner, among others, Stuttgart have some impressive options when it comes to the transitional part of the pitch. In Veh's first match in his second spell, these options weren't included in the starting eleven but did all come off the bench.

The arrival of Oriol Romeu from Chelsea on a season-long loan deal adds a modern defensive-midfielder. His individual error aside, the Spanish U-21 international is skilled enough to cover both roles of a traditional pivot - recover and distribute possession.

That, and paired with the raw talents of Leitner, could offer Stuttgart more dynamic options from middle-to-front. This is one change, potentially, required from the shoe-horning of several industrious players into a team struggling to find attacking rhythm.

Veh looks to have continued Stuttgart's routine of marginalizing match-winning players and this opens up the serious risk of the club falling into another lull, in the same manner as last season under Schneider and Stevens when short-term goals took priority over the discovery of a long-term plan.

A defeat to Bochum over 90 minutes and the costly individual errors, mean that Stuttgart don't have to worry about a cup run. But they exited the competition in the second round last year, and their league campaign hardly benefited.

Stuttgart's woes have been several months and years in the making. The next few months will decide whether he's the man to stop the rot.