Austrian Bundesliga 2019/20: RB Salzburg vs LASK Linz – tactical analysis

The clash between RB Salzburg and LASK Linz was one of the best matches of the Austrian Bundesliga this season as Salzburg sat in the first position with 44 points after the opening 18 games while Linz were just two points behind them. After the winter break, the Austrian top-flight returned with this incredible game.

The team of the American coach, Jesse Marsch, have not lost a single match this season, winning 13 and drawing five times. Also, the first clash between these two top teams in this season ended with a 2:2 draw, so it was clear that this would be a thrilling match on a high level.

In this tactical analysis, well look at both teams tactics and explain how LASK Linz were able to lead with 1:2 at half-time away from home, and remain in front after the 90 minutes, as the final scoreline was 2:3

Lineups

Since in both squads, almost no important players were injured, both managers could line up their best 11 players for this game. Marsch went once more with a 3-4-1-2 formation with Cican Stankovic in goal, and the back three was made of Maximilian Wöber, Jérôme Onguéné and André Ramalho while the wing-backs were Andreas Ulmer and Patrik Farkas. Enock Mwepu, Zlatko Junuzović and Masaya Okugawa occupied the central midfield while upfront Hee-chan Hwang and Patson Daka had the task to score the necessary goals. After Erling Haaland’s move to Borussia Dortmund, the people had a special eye on them.

On the other side, Valérien Ismaël used the usual 3-4-3 formation with Alexander Schlager between the sticks and the back three, which consisted of Gernot Trauner, Philipp Wiesinger and Petar Filipovic. James Holland and Peter Michorl were the only two central defenders, while Reinhold Ranftl and René Renner were the wing-backs. The three men upfront were Dominik Frieser, Marko Raguž and Thomas Goiginger.

The wings as key-areas

So, when we look at the formations of both teams, we see that both played with a back three what is quite rare nowadays. Furthermore, we can see that RB Salzburg clearly had more men in the middle of the pitch as they have three central midfielders while LASK Linz just had the two with Michorl and Holland. Additionally, Marsch’s team had two more central orientated strikers (on the teamsheet) while Linz had, with Raguž, just one (white zone in the image).

However, as we can see in the image below, Ismaël’s squad had on both wings two players while the home side just had Ulmer and Farkas, respectively (black zones in the image). These wide-areas were in this match quite important as we’ll see in this opening part of this tactical analysis.

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