Position
FC Salzburg failed to get the right result ahead of the Champions League match at Bayer 04. The 17-time Austrian champions lost 2-1 at home to Linzer ASK on Matchday 14 in the Admiral Bundesliga. Salzburg were on top and deservedly took the lead after the hour mark to Moussa Yeo. But an own goal from striker Karim Konaté on 72 minutes turned the game round in favour of LASK and the visitors succeeded in scoring a flattering winner two minutes from time. "We didn't deserve this defeat," complained Salzburg's Dutch coach Pepijn Lijnders. "Games are decided through individual moments and today we weren't good enough in two moments. It's incredible how often we were in their penalty area, crosses, promising headers, shots – it was a good game offensively. We should have won with the chances we had."
FC Salzburg have now gone four league games without a win. The club, who finished runners-up last term and for the first time in ten years not champions of Austria, have waited over a month for a win in the domestic league. They have now slipped down to sixth and are 14 points behind league leaders Sturm Graz who have played two more games.
In the Champions League, Salzburg picked up a first win on Matchday 4 with a 3-1 victory away to Feyenoord. The sixth qualification for this competition in succession for last season's runners-up was achieved in the qualifiers against Twente Enschede (2-1; 3-3) and Dynamo Kyiv (2-0; 1-1). The league phase started with defeats at Sparta Prague (0-3) plus the games at home to Stade Brest (0-4) and Dinamo Zagreb (0-2). The 3-1 win in Rotterdam with goals scored by Karim Konaté (2) and Daouda Guindo was the hoped-for turnaround for Salzburg who picked up their first three points with their first goals. The club is now 30th in the table with a chance of finishing in the top 24 and thereby qualifying for the play-off round. Salzburg do face big challenges in the Champions League after the match in Leverkusen: The next three opponents are Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
Personnel
The coach ‘Pep’ Lijnders was the long-standing assistant coach to Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool and he took up the coaching job at FC Salzburg in the summer. After a good start with six wins and two draws from first eight games, the coach has recently had to rotate his team due to injury and illness. The number one keeper Janis Blaswich missed the last two games due to a calf injury. The goalkeeper on loan from RB Leipzig, who was in the Germany squad for the Nations League games against Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Netherlands, was replaced by Alexander Schlager. Blaswich also knows two Werkself players very well: The keeper played alongside Granit Xhaka and Jonas Hofmann for many years at Borussia Mönchengladbach. It remains to be seen whether Blaswich will be back in goal in Leverkusen on Tuesday. And the defenders Leandro Morgalla (thigh) and Maurits Kjaergaard (ankle) plus striker Fernando (thigh) were unavailable at the weekend. The Japanese new signing Takumu Kawamura has not played this season due to a knee injury.
In the 2-1 defeat against LASK, Lijnders opted to play a 4-2-3-1 formation for the first time in preference to his favoured 4-3-3. The two central defenders Samson Baidoo and Kamil Piatkowski should be in the line-up at the BayArena alongside left-back Aleksa Terzic. First choices in central midfield are the Dane Mads Bidstrup, the Frenchman Lucas Gourna-Douath and the 21-year-old Mali international Mamady Diambou. The biggest goal threat from Salzburg this season has come from the attacking players Karim Konaté (8 goals, 2 assists), Oscar Gloukh (5/5), Yeo Moussa (4/4) and Dorgeles Nene (4/3). Interesting new signings from Liverpool are the two midfield talents Bobby Clark and Stefan Bajcetic.
Problems
The Salzburg attack has been off target recently. In the 14 games played so far, FC Salzburg failed to score eight times and only netted 15 goals in total. The Austrian side's defence has also been exposed. The big defeats against Sparta Prague and Stade Brest in the Champions League were not on their own. The clash with the champions Sturm Graz ended in a 5-0 defeat. That was the biggest league defeat for Salzburg in 16 years. Individual errors and deficiencies in defence and a lack of clinical finishing in attacks has led to some disappointing results. For example, Salzburg dominated large parts of the game in the 4-0 defeat against Stade Brest but lacked the required finishing and awareness up front. That was the biggest home defeat since a 6-2 loss to Bayern Munich in November 2020.
Performers
The team led by Pep Lijnders did show what they can do in the 3-1 win in Rotterdam. Pressing and counter pressing worked brilliantly and they took their chances clinically. The Salzburg coach highlighted "unity, being compact and aggression against the ball" after the game. "This team played with real maturity and were excellent up to the second goal," said Lijnders and he said looking forward to the next away game in Leverkusen: "We have to take that feeling with us!" Will Salzburg be able to again show their attacking quality at the BayArena? Last season they scored by far the most goals in Austria top-flight with 74 in 32 league games. Traditionally, the club has been seen as a training opportunity for top strikers with many going on to play for top European sides: Sadio Mané, Marcel Sabitzer, Mergim Berisha, Dominik Szoboszlai, Erling Haaland, Karim Adeyemi, Benjamin Sesko – they all played for FC Salzburg. In the current team, young players like Karim Konaté, Moussa Yeo and Oscar Gloukh are looking to follow the same path.
