In December 2020, LASK was at the top of the Bundesliga, in the Europa League the fans experienced great moments. 15 months later, the athletes missed the top six and kicked off the qualifying group on Sunday with the home game against Tirol (2:30 p.m.). “What happened to LASK?” Ask the followers. The answer: The club is trapped in its own past and pays for mistakes – some of which were months, but some of them years ago.
Too many followers: 2-1 in Basel in the Champions League qualifier, victories against Eindhoven (4-1), Sporting (3-0, 4-1), Alkmaar (2-0) in the Europa League: the international successes of the past lifted the claims – that’s why the 1: 4 in Prague against Slavia felt like an oath of disclosure. But the team that was successful in the past cannot be compared to today’s, neither in terms of quality nor mentality. with Gernot Trauner you lost the key player, “marching” like Reinhold Ranftl and Dominik Frieser are also no longer there. The remaining regular players from the high-altitude flight can’t match their performance at the time or have been permanently injured. Nevertheless, they are held on in the hope that they will find the form they once showed. But the way out of the deep is difficult when everyone is in it at the same time. There is no one who sets the direction.
Transfer flops: sports director Radovan Vujanovic has been responsible for a transfer period so far. Of course it doesn’t look good though Branko Jovicic is not eligible to play against Slavia Prague because he was signed after the European Cup deadline, Oumar Sako had to be operated on immediately and Filip Twardzik in Prague was only a reservist. But the mistakes began long before his time.
LASK has had 36 players since the summer of 2020, as ex-vice president Jurgen Werner nor set up the squad, obliged. Only two turned out to be gains: Sasha Horvath (He wasn’t fetched by Werner) and Andrew Gruberwho was slowed down by a cruciate ligament tear. Jan Boller, Hyun Seok Hong or Keito Nakamura are young and can still develop into top performers. The rest are followers and real flops – such as Dario Maresic.
LASK hasn’t had a “golden hand” for a long time. The starting position in the transfer periods has also changed: players with potential were once signed, who were given the time to work out their place in a functioning eleven. Little is currently working – and the accesses have to help immediately. The hit rate was catastrophic in the past transfer window.
Transfiguration of the past: When looking back, a lot is forgotten: under coach Valeria Ishmael – seen by many as a savior – the master group, for example, went as completely wrong after a successful basic round as they did with Dominik Thalhammer. LASK was consistently successful recently Oliver Glasner, who left the club in the summer of 2019 and in the first six months after that, when Glasner’s handwriting continued to have an impact. Tried to the virtues of that time Andrew Wieland returned the athletes – with a much worse roster.
Restart for new achievements
The LASK is therefore where it belongs. The constant reminder of better times inhibits development. That also means that you may have to part with former European Cup heroes because football is played in the present and not in the past. The club needs a fresh start to begin a new success story.
LASK | Additions since 2020
Summer 2020
Andreas Gruber 42 Games | 11 goals | 11 assists
Alexander Schmidt 24 Games | 2 goals | 1 assistant
Lukas Grgic sold to Hajduk Split
Mamoudou Karamoko sold to FC Copenhagen
Andres Andrade sold to Bielefeld
Mads Emil Madsen sold to Slavia Prague
Evgen Cheberko sold to Osijek
Johannes Eggestein on loan to Bremen
Tobias Anselm awarded to Tyrol
Yoaf Hofmayster awarded to M. Petah Tikva
Patrick Plojer awarded to Blau-Weiss Linz
Thomas Turner moved to Vorwarts Steyr
Nikolas Polster cooperation player FC Juniors OÖ
Fredy Valencia cooperation player
Winter 2020/21
Jan Boller 26 Games | 4 assists
Matias Succar awarded to Teplice
Erwin Softic cooperation player
Adam Griger cooperation player
Methehan Altunba’s cooperation player
Summer 2021
Florian Flecker 32 Games | 3 goals | 4 assists
Hyun-seok Hong 31 Games | 1 goal | 7 assists
Sascha Horvath 24 Games | 9 goals | 5 assists
Felix Luckeneder 25 Games | 1 goal
Keito Nakamura 21 Games | 4 goals
Dario Maresic 16 Games | 1 goal | 1 assistant
Yannis Letard 15 Games | 1 assistant
Christoph Monschein awarded to Altach
Enrique Wild awarded to FC Juniors OÖ
Stefan Radulovic cooperation player
Strahinja Kerkez cooperation player
Winter 2021/22
Branko Jovicic 3 Games | 1 goal
Filip Twardzik 5 games
Oumar Sako 0 games
Marco Sulzner cooperation player
Dominik Weixelbraun cooperation player
Alexander Michlmayr cooperation player
Source: Nachrichten
