Janko to Portuguese Federation: "Are you all crazy?"

In the latest episode of the podcast "Herzerl mit Janko", the two sharply criticize the Portuguese Federation and defend Cristiano Ronaldo for his activities in world football. There is praise and criticism for the ÖFB team.

Herzog has issues with Jorge Jesus's decisions, and especially with the Portuguese national coach's communication. He calls the announcement to let Cristiano Ronaldo play for 30 minutes, only to then not substitute him in for tactical reasons, an "absolute no-go".

"I've never heard such nonsense in my life"

Communication with a superstar is extremely important, and according to Herzog, Ronaldo must be placed above others: "Everyone says every player is equal – I've never heard such nonsense in my life."

"As a coach, you're not going to go and tell a star: I'll treat you exactly the same as the young 26th man in the squad. You can't do that, that's absolute nonsense. Anyone who claims something like that has never been involved in the football business for long," Herzog continued.

Rather the third goalie than Leao

Marc Janko also sharply criticizes the Portuguese Federation and finds their behaviour "disturbing": "Everyone knows the CR7 brand, and then in the next game, Leao plays with the number seven. They simply pass the jersey on as if it were some rag that means nothing, that has no symbolic power for Portugal. I thought to myself: Are you all crazy?"

The two are aware that according to UEFA regulations, the first 23 jersey numbers must also be assigned to the 23 players in the matchday squad.

Nevertheless, Janko has no understanding for Portugal's decision: "UEFA or no UEFA, then I'd just give the number seven to the third goalkeeper, who sits on the bench and doesn't make an appearance. Something like that just doesn't work; it left a very bad taste. They probably wanted to spite him again, to say that it works without him."

Pristina's pitch remains a topic

One of the big topics of the away match in Kosovo was the pitch quality in Pristina. Even before the match, Ralf Rangnick had expressed concerns and criticized the pitch. Xaver Schlager lost his temper after the match and expressed disbelief at the conditions.

Schlager furious: "I might as well stay at home" >>>

For Andi Herzog, this topic is overblown and should not serve as an excuse: "If you keep hearing during the game that the pitch is bad, you can't listen to it anymore at some point. And there have been a few Kosovan players who dribbled fantastically despite the bad pitch."

"We will win the group"

Nevertheless, Marc Janko and Andi Herzog conclude the ÖFB training camp positively. Both consider it very likely, or rather expect it as a given, that Austria will win its Nations League group.

"We are top of the table; we will win the group, nothing else was really expected in the end. It was already to be expected that we would face difficult phases in every game, because the Irish, Kosovars, and also the Israelis can sometimes play good football," says Herzog, who then anticipates a home victory against Ireland and the associated group win.

"With this energy, passion, and willingness to run, we are doing very well. With that, we can steer games in our favour against opponents like the ones we've faced, and either win or draw. That's how we will win the group."

"Kalajdzic is key"

Nevertheless, the two still see room for improvement in terms of play. This was shown by the World Cup matches against Spain and Argentina. For this reason, among others, more reliance should be placed on Sasa Kalajdzic in attack in the future.

"Kalajdzic will be key. You saw it in every single game – with his height, his long legs, his goal threat, his combination play. We can only keep our fingers crossed that he gets better month by month. Then he will be the difference-maker that every team needs and every good team has," Herzog praised the LASK striker.

In the same vein, former heading specialist Janko criticized the national team's cross quality: "If we play upfront with Gregoritsch and Kalajdzic, the crosses must improve. It cannot be that we put in so few crosses and then they are so inaccurate."