Your own demands have increased. Captain David Alaba welcomed the new style of play, the process that the ÖFB team is going through under neo-trainer Ralf Rangnick. He was critical of the past.
“The disappointment is greater than the joy because there would have been more inside here,” Alaba told journalists in the catacombs of the Happel Stadium. Not being satisfied with the performance shows “how hungry, how ambitious” the team is, how much it wants to develop further. And even more: “It just shows that maybe somewhere we’re fed up with playing a certain kind of football, like we might have had over and over again in the years before.”
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“A fun process”
Rangnick took over the ÖFB team at the end of May as the successor to Franco Foda. His German compatriot had been in charge of the selection since the end of 2017. “We are in a process. This process looks good and it’s just fun,” said Alaba about the restart under Rangnick. “We’re excited to continue this process and achieve our goals.” A very big one, also for him personally, is taking part in the World Cup. This was missed under Foda.
There were 44,800 spectators in the stadium against France. “I think we woke people up with our game,” said Alaba. You’ve seen what you’re capable of together with the fans. The Real Madrid professional also recognized a relapse in the second half. “We were lower, tried to keep the 1-0 somewhere,” said Alaba. “One has certainly recognized a certain tiredness somewhere.” He himself had to leave the field prematurely with adductor problems.
“Just play clever football”
Like his coach, Alaba was angry when he conceded to make it 1-1. “We can’t get that at that level, we just have to play tough football. I think we have that experience,” said the three-time Champions League winner to his colleagues. Losing the ball after a free-kick of his own was the starting point for Kylian Mbappe’s rocket launch. Alaba: “We just have to play smarter football.”
The 29-year-old did not want to judge whether the ÖFB team had improved compared to the most recent games against Croatia (3-0) and Denmark (1-2). “If we had won, we would have taken steps forward because then we would still have the quality to win these games,” explained Alaba. “We have to learn to decide games like this for ourselves – even if it’s dirty.”
“Always good accents”
Midfield endurance runner Konrad Laimer, who again put in a strong performance, had a similar view. “In the three games we showed good accents again and again, but in the end we didn’t reward ourselves enough,” said the Leipzig legionnaire. “If you do that a little better or if you’re a little bit luckier, you really have to win all three games – and that’s pretty crazy against these nations.”
Late goals were conceded against both Denmark and France. “That’s definitely a point that we can and must do better, that the effort is rewarded even more,” said Laimer. The consequences were already felt by him. Like his neighbor Xaver Schlager, the 25-year-old played through all three previous games under Rangnick. “At such a time of the season it gets on the body at some point, that’s normal.” On Monday (8.45 p.m. / live ORF 1) at the end against Denmark, Laimer still wants to be part of the game again. It is important to further perfect Rangnick’s plan.
“Simply great football”
Nicolas Seiwald also plays an important role in this. “We play intensively, we defend together. We’re just playing great football at the moment, that’s really good for me,” said the 21-year-old. He also benefits from the similar playing style of his neighbors – above all from Laimer and Schlager, the two top ball hunters in the team. “It’s crazy, you can only learn from them,” stressed Seiwald. “They are also a bit of a role model for me. They do it really well. You need guys like that in the team.”
The ÖFB midfield against France consisted exclusively of players with a Red Bull character. Seiwald is the youngest of them. “We played really maturely, especially in the first half,” said the Salzburg youngster. The late 1:1 equalization was bitter and shouldn’t happen like that. “We stood a bit too high there.” He wants to do better in Copenhagen. “We want to learn from the first game against Denmark.”
Source: Nachrichten
