The Burgenlander had to make a few changes to his team on Friday.
In central defense, Keba Cisse's departure was offset by the proven trio of Andrade-Tornich-Mbuyamba, while in attack, Samuel Adeniran was flanked by Krystof Danek and Christoph Lang, after Sasa Kalajdzic's loan ended and Moses Usor was not yet fit for a starting XI appearance.
Adeniran filled a somewhat new role, distributing many balls to his teammates rather than typically making deep runs himself. Furthermore, the American proved to be as clinical as rarely before, bagging his first Bundesliga brace for LASK.
Horvath: "It was easy to perform"
The only new addition to the starting XI was Robert Ljubicic, who was allowed to start in place of the recently injured Melayro Bogarde.
"Apart from him, it was the same players as last year. That's why it was easy for us to deliver our performance on the pitch," captain Sascha Horvath said happily.
Lang: "We have no reason not to be confident"
LASK approached the match from minute one with the self-assurance of a double winner and didn't give the visiting Graz side the slightest chance.
Christoph Lang added: "We have no reason not to be confident. We go into every game to win it."
"Today we found an opponent who tried to sit deep. Nevertheless, we repeatedly found our way to goal from the start and scored at the right time," Kühbauer summarized. He was therefore "very satisfied" with the performance, "because you could see that the lads are working very well."
Kühbauer actually wanted his entire starting XI to play the full match
In preparation, it certainly seemed that LASK might falter; three of their six test matches were lost. "But we were tired then too," Horvath qualified.
Meanwhile, they are at a good physical level. So good, in fact, that Kühbauer considered letting his complete starting XI play the full match despite the scorching heat in Linz.
"We wanted to keep the momentum, because we could have given it our all, as we only have our next game in nine days. But from the 65th minute, we became less precise and then brought on players I wouldn't have otherwise," said the LASK coach, who was thus also able to give important playing time to recently injured players like Alessandro Schöpf, Moses Usor, and Melayro Bogarde.
What still needs to improve
The aforementioned sloppiness during the second half "naturally mustn't happen in the Champions League qualifiers, because if you ease off there, you immediately concede a goal," Horvath criticized.
Decision-making in the final third could also have been better on a few occasions, Kühbauer added.
"But all in all, it was a good start. GAK had six new players, we know we have to stay grounded. Now it's about working hard, because things will soon get serious," Horvath outlined the direction for the coming weeks.
