"Falling Back into Old Patterns" Salzburg Struggles with Efficiency

The 1-1 draw between Ried and Salzburg could not have been received more differently by the two teams.

While Ried is patting itself on the back after a fighting performance, Salzburg is disappointed. The "Bulls" travelled to Innviertel with the intention of securing a mandatory win.

To the match report >>>

The Opening Goal Came Too Late

In the Salzburg camp, there was a chorus of voices on "Sky" after the match. Newcomer Zabransky put it this way: "I believe we were negligent with our chances today. Especially in the first half, we had two or three opportunities where we always scored in recent games."

The center-back shifted the responsibility to the strikers: "I believe Ried didn't make it difficult for us; we had the chances. As a center-back, it's naturally hard to judge, but I believe it varies from game to game for the strikers."

Salzburg captain Veratschnig lamented the return of the problems from the beginning of the season: "I believe we've fallen back into old patterns a bit today. We could have been leading 3-0 in the first half. That's happened three or four times this year already. And yes, if you don't score up front, you concede at the back eventually."

Set Pieces as a Weakness

The "Bulls'" head coach, Danny Röhl, was particularly annoyed by the manner in which the opposing goal was conceded. He spoke of a weakness that repeatedly catches Salzburg out: "We also need to be more disciplined on set pieces, in both directions, as we are currently always vulnerable to conceding from them. That is a point where an opponent will, of course, try to exploit this small weakness."

Valentin Zabransky expressed it even more directly: "We knew that Ried was only dangerous from set pieces; nothing came from open play. That's why we are very disappointed that it only amounted to one point today."

"Otherwise We'll Concede Five"

In Ried, they trust the path taken under Mario Despotovic. Week after week, they want to take the next steps in their development.

Ried's summer new signing, Stefan Schwab, addressed his team with proud words and couldn't resist a dig at his former club Rapid: "Salzburg is on the up. We managed to concede only one goal against Salzburg today, which I believe looked different for other teams in recent weeks."

The veteran defended their strategic playing style in the interview: "We saw Rapid in Salzburg – that looked good with the ball, but if you give away those spaces against Salzburg, then you'll concede five. Now other teams will come, and we want to bring our football onto the pitch then."

"We Want to Play More Football"

The Innviertler coach, Mario Despotovic, praised his own team and appeared considerably calmer than he was on the sideline during the match: "We are satisfied. With the result and also with the morale in the team. We wanted to be stable, and I believe we achieved that."

Looking back, he doesn't see his team's playing style as defensive and destructive as Salzburg did: "I also think that in moments when we had possession, we tried to achieve something. In the second half, we tried even harder and even created one or two chances. Against Salzburg, that's extremely difficult because they have so much quality. Therefore, it was a good team performance."

Despotovic confirmed in the interview that the team's playing style will change in the coming weeks and become more possession-oriented: "We will continue to build on this. We want to play more football, but when you have opponents like that, you also have to be able to adapt and suffer. For our process, this step was very important."

Next week, SV Ried will have the opportunity to implement this new playing style against WAC. On Thursday, Salzburg will try to optimize their chance conversion again in the Europa League against Levski Sofia.