AUSTRIA Bundesliga: Salzburg look streets ahead again

by Brian Homewood, World Soccer

It is hard to imagine this year’s Austrian Bundesliga will be anything other than another one-horse race as Salzburg have managed to keep together the core of the team which cantered home last season, wrapping up the title with eight games to spare and scoring a record 110 goals in the process.

No other club can match the resources that Red Bull have pumped in and, whatever you feel about the way the energy-drinks manufacturer have “rebranded” the club, there is no denying these have been put to excellent use by sporting director Ralf Rangnick since he took over two years ago.

Rangnick, who led Hoffenheim from the German third division to the top flight in successive seasons as a coach in his homeland, has rebuilt a Salzburg team with young players suited to a high-tempo pressing game. Brazilian forward Alan and defender Ramalho, Spanish striker Jonatan Soriano (#26), Slovenian midfielder Kevin Kampl (#44) and Senegalese winger Sadio Mané have all flourished under Rangnick’s guidance, turning Salzburg into one of the most eye-catching teams outside Europe’s “big five” leagues.

Until Rangnick came along the club was its own worst enemy, hiring and selling players en masse during the summer. Now they have a far more settled side, with the only significant change being the coach.

When Roger Schmidt left to join Bayer Leverkusen he was replaced by Adi Hütter, a disciple of the Salzburg style of play. Hütter is something of an Austrian version of Rangnick, leading tiny Grödig out of the Erste Liga and into the Bundesliga, where they managed a highly credible third-place finish on their debut last term and a place in the Europa League qualifiers.

Massimo Bruno, a 20-year-old midfielder signed for 9 million euros from Anderlecht, was the club’s major signing of the summer, along with Peter Ankersen, 23, from Esbjerg and 19-year-old Senegalese midfielder Naby Keita from French side Istres.

Other newcomers are defender Benno Schmitz from Bayern Munich and left-sided midfielder Marcel Sabitzer, on loan from another Red Bull side, Leipzig.

Although Salzburg’s summer outlay of 13 million euros may seem modest, it was far more than the other nine Bundesliga clubs combined. In fact, only two other clubs had spent any money at all before the competition kicked off on July 19, with Rapid Vienna investing 1.3 million euros and Austria Vienna 0.97 million euros.

The rest of the Bundesliga, including newly promoted Altach, have had to survive on a dite of free transfers and players promoted from their junior teams. Financial prudence and youth are the watchwords in Austrian domestic football where Rapid’s squad has an average age of 23.2 and Wolfsberger are the oldest with 26.6 years.

The league format, long a source of dissatisfaction with the 10 teams playing each other four times a season, has again been under discussion. Rangnick suggested the whole structure should be knocked down and replaced with a new 14- or 16-team division in which all the major centres of the country were represented. Innsbruck, Linz and Klagenfurt will all be missing from the top flight this season.

“I have a problem about playing the same opponents four times,” says Rangnick. “I would prefer to play twice against Rapid, twice against Linz, twice against Klagenfurt, twice against Vorarlberg.”

Rapid, who won the last of their 32 league titles in 2008, already seem to be in for a long, hard slog. They have sold the three players who provided 33 of their 63 goals last term and were thrashed 6-1 by Salzburg on the opening day of the new season.

Brian Homewood, World Soccer