Team Focus: Kaiserslautern

With five games remaining in the Bundesliga, the relegation battle is still incredibly open with the next few matches capable of completely re-shaping the entire bottom-half of the table.

Just six points separate Hertha BSC in 17th and FSV Mainz in 11th and in the last few weeks of the season, there will be a lot of twists-and-turns.

You just can't write these scripts.

The championship may be decided in the last weeks of the season between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern – or even Schalke 04 if results this week go their way.

And at the bottom of the table, the fixtures are so finely poised with FC Augsburg and Hamburg SV locking horns on the final day of the season.

Incredibly, Hertha Berlin, who are second-bottom in the table, possibly have the most favourable run-in with TSG Hoffenheim on the last day of the season at home, as well as home fixtures against 1.FC Kaiserslautern and Freiburg.

If we do have it all to play for on Matchday 34 then SC Freiburg will travel to Dortmund and FC Bayern will travel to Cologne with championship and relegation places still up for grabs at either end.

But one team who have already had their fate decided is Kaiserslautern, who look almost certain to be relegated to 2.Bundesliga in the summer.

The South-Western club have a proud history in German football at the Betzenberg with the likes of Fritz Walter integral in the development of the game just after the Second World War.

This season though, has been nothing short of a shambles for the Reds with just three victories in 29 matches and just 18 goals across the campaign.

It is an incredible demise for a club who last season were on the verge of qualifying for Europe under Marco Kurz. Kaiserslautern reached the lofty heights of seventh last season and finished just 12 points off Europe with FSV Mainz making a very late sprint for fifth place and increasing the gap between them and FCK.

Kaiserslautern had some impressive performers in the likes of midfielder Christian Tiffert who had one of his best seasons in the Bundesliga with 17 assists. The 30-year-old was ranked as FCK's best player with WhoScored rating of 7.31 and seven 'Man of the Match' awards in his 33 appearances for the club.

Tiffert was mainly deployed in an attacking-midfield role for Kaiserslautern with many of his assists coming from set-pieces. The midfielder had a 76% pass completion ratio, an average of 36.5 passes per match and 3.2 key passes every game.

But strangely, Tiffert was pulled further back into a central-midfield role in the 4-2-3-1 system which limited his ability to get forward and create opportunities for their starved centre-forwards. His form this season has been a shadow of last season's player with a WhoScored rating of 6.73 and just one assist in 29 matches. Tiffert has scored two goals this campaign and has just two 'Man of the Match' awards.

The lack of creativity in the side, as well as the sale of Croatian striker Srdjan Lakic to VfL Wolfsburg has had horrific consequences on the form of the Betzenberg outfit. 28-year-old Lakic had 16 goals in 30 games last season with a WhoScored rating of 6.70.

Not only that but on-loan midfielder Jan Moravek, who had an excellent season at FCK, returned to Schalke 04 in the summer and Ivo Ilicevic signed for Hamburg SV at the end of the transfer window in August 2011.

The club's summer activities have largely contributed to the downfall of Kaiserslautern this season. The top goalscorer at the Fritz-Walter Stadion is Israeli international Itay Shechter with three goals in just 12 starts in the Bundesliga. The 25-year-old has been hampered with injuries and if the attacker had been fit for the majority of the campaign, Kaiserslautern may not have been so lacklustre up front.

Behind Shechter, Tiffert, along with Florian Dick and Dorge Kouemaha have two goals each in the league. The lack of goals has been a major issue in their 20-match run without a win in the Bundesliga with

Based on this season's statistics, their strengths are protecting a winning lead but they have various weaknesses, including finishing, defending against counter-attacking sides, fouling in dangerous areas and individual errors. Their style is a more direct, aggressive approach with a focus on attacking down the right-hand side and taking long-range shots.

Their aggressive style of play has put them top of the Bundesliga disciplinary charts with 61 bookings and 4 red cards.

One of the players likely to depart in the summer is 21-year-old goalkeeper Kevin Trapp who was dropped last week by interim coach Krassimir Balakov after revealing his intentions to leave the club. The stopper is another talented, young keeper to come from Germany and he has made 23 appearances this term and was an ever-present last season.

Trapp has a WhoScored rating of 6.60 and has strengths in penalty saving and stopping long-distance efforts. The youngster has been linked with moves to Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg and FSV Mainz in recent weeks.

It probably says a lot for Kaiserslautern's season when their goalkeeper has been the stand-out performer at times. Their goal difference stands at -23 and with five games remaining in the season, they would have to pick up, at least, nine points to get out of the relegation zone.

Despite the disappointment of being relegated, the club will put up a stern fight in 2.Bundesliga and should be in the running to return to the top-flight 12 months from now.