Champions League » News » Salzburg coach Matthäus: “Had big plans”
He played for Bayern and coached – as “Co” – RB Salzburg. Germany’s legend Lothar Matthäus has a clear favorite ahead of the Champions League smash between the two teams on Tuesday and remembers the missed opportunities in his “bull” engagement. “I had big plans,” said the Champions League champion Expert from Sky Sport Austria to the APA – Austria Press Agency.
2006 should have been Matthäus’ coaching year. But then everything turned out very differently, said the 60-year-old. Actually, after moderately successful engagements with Rapid, Partizan Belgrade and Hungary’s national team, he should have worked as Salzburg head coach in the second year of his Red Bull commitment. But then came Giovanni Trapattoni, Matthew was demoted to assistant. “Why, why, why – I’m still asking myself this question 16 years later,” said Matthäus. “You have an ideal plan with Hansi Flick as assistant coach, put together a team, build trust in the players. Then there are two weeks before the Trapattoni training camp.”
“We wanted to bring in structure, wanted a fast, offensive game – and then came catenaccio. An attacking full-back like Markus Steinhöfer didn’t stand a chance,” summarized Matthäus. “It was marketing, Red Bull is always marketing” promotions.
He wanted to “build an international name” and saw Salzburg as a stepping stone in his home country. But he was Trapattoni’s “Co” for a season, the later Bayern coach Flick “escaped” to the DFB, for which he now works as team manager. “I clenched my fist in my pocket,” recalled Matthäus, who didn’t want to press the “bulls” to keep his contract after an unsuccessful short job at the Brazilian club Athletico Paranaense.
With Rangnick came a clear line
However, these times are over in Salzburg since Ralf Rangnick brought a clear line to the club from 2012. A role that Matthew himself would have loved to play. “I think we could have done something like that. Flick would have been the developer, I knew in which direction he was thinking. I had something big in mind,” said Matthäus. The club has now matured. “Now (Red Bull boss) Dietrich Matschitz has also become a big football fan. He wasn’t that far before.”
The further development of Austria’s series champion can be seen not least from the successes of the past few years. It is also due to the fact that they have prevailed in a CL group against VfL Wolfsburg, OSC Lille and FC Sevilla in the current season. “We’re talking about countries that have won the last three World Cups,” emphasized Matthäus. “You can see that you can assert yourself with good work, courage and quality.”
“Clear Outsider”
Salzburg is still “a clear outsider against Bayern. But they have nothing to lose, at least I think they’re capable of exciting games.” In any case, the absence of Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is not a major disadvantage for the favorites. then the rest of the quality is so high. “The joy of playing, the communication among each other. The team has grown together, there are no egoists,” said Matthäus. Compared to his predecessor Flick, coach Julian Nagelsmann “put it even better” and said the game was “fast, attractive, compact”.
Matthäus also has a clear opinion on the future of Salzburg’s sports director Christoph Freund, who was still working as a team manager in his Salzburg days. Freund is always associated with a departure, he himself has so far clearly denied it. And Matthäus does not believe that the 44-year-old Pinzgauer will make a “departure”: “It suits him in Salzburg. I simply trust him with many things, including the leap into the German Bundesliga. But will he be happy there? He is rooted in Salzburg, recognized and has his family.
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