RB Salzburg currently sit in the second position of the Austrian Bundesliga behind LASK Linz. This is quite unusual for them as they dominated the league within the last few years and 2012/13 was the last time that the winner of Austria’s top-flight wasn’t RB Salzburg as back then Austria Vienna became champions.
Ahead of the winter-break, Jesse Marsch’s team were in the first position of the Austrian Bundesliga and additionally in the round of the last 32 of the UEFA Europa League as they finished in the third position in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.
However, after the winter break, they won in the ÖFB Cup against Amstetten from the second division but then just got one point out of their first three league games and were eliminated from the UEFA Europa League by Frankfurt.
Now, they won their last two games in the ÖFB Cup and the Austrian Bundesliga respectively, but still, it seems as they would have some problems in defence. In this tactical analysis in the form of a scout report, Ill explain why the injury of the right-back Rasmus Kristensen causes them some problems.
Quick overview of RB Salzburg’s system and tactics
No matter which system they play, the tactics and style of play of Salzburg always stay the same. The two preferred systems of Marsch are a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2 in which the positioning of the three central midfielders is quite flexible. Whenever they play with a 4-4-2 or a 4-diamond-2, the two wingers are positioned centrally and occupy the half-spaces during the periods of possession.
Considering these aspects, no matter if they play with a back four or a back three, the full-backs and wing-backs respectively are the only men who provide width and are positioned wide. In light of this, its logical that you expect from these players to support the offensive players and provide them passing options to the wide-areas.
This season, Salzburg’s style of play became even more famous in Europe as they showed some great performances in the UEFA Champions League against the likes of Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Genk.
They want to play actively with and without the ball and are, especially in the two moments of transition, extremely good as they mostly start counter-pressing immediately after losing the ball. After winning the ball back they try to use their pacey players to get forward as quickly as possible.
During the periods of possession, they often overload the centre and then either use the combination of short passes and deep runs to get through the centre or try to use the space on the wings with the aid of the higher positioned full-backs and wing-backs respectively.
Out of possession, we can almost always see similar tactics as in the moments of defensive transition they use a high and aggressive pressing.
So, considering all their tactics in the four phases of a game, you can clearly say that firstly RB Salzburg are a team against which it’s pretty hard to play against and secondly the men in Marsch’s squad need to be physically extremely strong.
The right-back Kristensen is injured since the start of December 2019 and missed the last game ahead of the winter break and every single one in the year 2020. It’s not clear yet when he will return, but we will now compare him to the two players who replaced him in his position since his injury: Patrick Farkas and Albert Vallci.
Rasmus Kristensen
When we just look at the stats for the games in this seasons Austrian Bundesliga in which Kristensen was part of the starting XI (nine times), they got 2.33 points per game. In the last five league games in which he wasn’t available, his team just collected on one point on average per match. So, we already see that they miss their Danish right-back. However, when we look at their conceded goals, it’s even more astonishing. When Kristensen was part of the squad, they conceded on average 0.77 goals per 90 minutes while in the last five games their opponents scored on average two times per match.
So, now we will have a short look at why the Danish defender is quite important for the tactics of RB Salzburg and in the other two sections of this tactical analysis, I’ll analyse Farkas and Vallci to compare them to Kristensen.
The 22-year-old, who they bought at the start of this season from Ajax Amsterdam, is surely among the most athletic players in the whole squad of RB Salzburg. The majority of the men in Marchs team are physically strong, but Kristensen is really outstanding. He has solid acceleration, is fast, physically strong and has the stamina to run the right-wing up and down for 90 minutes. Considering this, we can often see how he supports his teammates with deep runs, and he tries to exploit the space on the wing. We can see an example below in which he sprints forward to make use of the free area in front of him as he receives a pass from Dominik Szoboszlai.
Also, his physical abilities help him in his defensive duels as it’s almost impossible to beat him when hes in a full sprint. Besides, he’s an extremely aggressive player in the direct duels and is strong in one-on-one situations. This is also clearly one of the factors why RB Salzburg have so much better values for their conceded goals in the games in which he played compared to the ones he missed.
The 22-year-old also has got two major weaknesses, which is no surprise as he’s still quite young and part of RB Salzburg just since the summer of 2019. The first problem is that he still needs some time to fully adapt to the tactics of RB Salzburg. Of course, he showed some decent performances in this season and with his physical qualities he perfectly fits into the squad, but he needs to work on his positioning as he often doesn’t provide enough width due to a too narrow positioning as in the example below.
