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Kühbauer: Kalajdzic? “The key is always…”

Didi Kühbauer is looking forward to the return of Sasa Kalajdzic!(Bild: Krone-Collage/FOTOKERSCHI / WERNER KERSCHBAUMMAYR, GEPA)

LASK can win in many different ways. The Linz team proved that on Tuesday with their hard-fought 3-1 victory at WAC, despite playing with a man down. Across both seasons, it was their ninth consecutive Bundesliga win, secured after a pep talk from coach Dietmar Kühbauer in the locker room. His team seems ready for its Champions League debut next Tuesday at AEK Athens—even if the comeback of returnee Sasa Kalajdzic is still a ways off.

Kalajdzic, whom the Upper Austrians had officially signed from Wolverhampton over the weekend, was not yet on the roster in Wolfsberg, as previously announced. Will he be ready for the Champions League opener? “It always comes down to the player,” Kühbauer emphasized on Sky. “I don’t think it’ll go so far that he’ll be a starter or able to play the full 90 minutes. That would be the wrong approach, even though he played fantastically last year.”

Kalajdzic contributed seven goals and eleven assists last season as one of the key players in the team’s league and cup victories, while still on loan at the time. The Austrian national team striker, whose career has already been set back by three cruciate ligament tears, has been back in Linz since Sunday. “He’s in training, but he’s hardly played any games,” Kühbauer noted. “We have to be careful and make sure we get him to a point where he can once again bring his strengths to bear for us.”

Kühbauer’s Focus for Now: the Cup
The next opportunity for some playing time comes in the ÖFB Cup on Saturday (3:30 p.m. on the sportkrone.at live ticker) against Deutschlandsberger SC. Only after the match against the Regionalliga team does Kühbauer plan to focus intensively on the Champions League. “We have Deutschlandsberg. This is a cup where we can win something again,” explained the double-title-winning coach from Burgenland. “But of course, we’ve already been watching AEK and are aware of their capabilities.”

Kühbauer’s offensive roster remains thin. Forward Samuel Adeniran will be sidelined for another one to two weeks following his cheekbone fracture. There are more options in central midfield. One of them is Alessandro Schöpf, who scored his first goal in a LASK jersey against WAC. “We’re going to try to make the next few weeks successful as well,” the national team player assured. They’ve worked hard for their place in the Champions League and deserve it. Eventually, though, the winning streak in the Bundesliga will come to an end. “I don’t think we can keep this up the entire season—winning every single game.”

Silberberger says key players must step up
His former club, WAC, is far from that. The Lavanttal team hasn’t won in four straight matches; in the most recent two, they weakened themselves with red cards for their key players Nicolas Wimmer (in the 0–0 draw against GAK) and Raffael Behounek. “Now we just have to come to terms with the situation. It’s not pleasant because, after a great start, we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess,” said coach Thomas Silberberger. His team will play an away Cup match in Parndorf on Sunday. Silberberger: “We need a lot more energy, and it has to come from our key players.”