Impressive early form: Who should stop Salzburg?
The new Bundesliga season is only one game day old and the question still arises: Who should stop this FC Red Bull Salzburg?
A familiar picture: Salzburg jubilation.
FC Red Bull Salzburg via Getty Images
If you look back on the first day of the Austrian Bundesliga, the common football observer can only come to one conclusion: Under normal circumstances, there will be no avoiding FC Red Bull Salzburg this season. Now that hasn’t just been clear since the 3-0 win against Austria Wien, the dominance with which Matthias Jaissle’s team performed, especially in the second half, was still amazing at this early stage of the new season – and a damper for everyone who had hoped for a somewhat more exciting championship decision than in previous years before the start of the season.
“It won’t get any easier once they’re used to it,” said Austria coach Manfred Schmid, quickly disillusioned. His performance in the city of Mozart had previously shown an appealing performance, but doubts about Salzburg’s victory arose at some point.
Salzburg compensates for departures perfectly
Salzburg – that much is already clear – has once again done its homework on the transfer market: The three departures of regular players Rasmus Kristensen, Brenden Aaronson and Karim Adeyemi were perfectly compensated, as so often in the recent past. Outstanding man against the Austria war New signing Fernando, who, like his teammates Oumar Solet and Noah Okafor, slipped into the day’s kicker team on the first day of the game.
According to Jaissle, Fernando brings “an unbelievable amount of quality with him”. On the defensive, the two new signings Lucas Gourna-Douath and Strahinja Pavlovic should ensure stability over the course of the season. Salzburg had revealed a few gaps against Austria at the beginning of the game, which is why Jaissle was not completely satisfied with his team’s performance: “Had Austria used their chances, our dominance would not have been so great.”
Jaissle with “Threat” to the competition
In this phase of the season, however, that was to be expected: “Certain processes are not yet as automatic as we want them to be. This also has to do with the fact that many national players joined the team late. It will be ‘step by step’ getting better.” A throttling to the national competition.
Next Saturday, Salzburg will visit the reigning runners-up Sturm Graz, who drew 1-1 at Wolfsberger AC on the first day of the game. At the end of April, the Styrians inflicted the Mozart city-dwellers’ last competitive game defeat to date, but Salzburg are the clear favorites in the game. After all, it’s another way to learn to fear the national competition early in the season.