Sturm has presented

Salzburg under pressure to make their coaching debut

Onur Cinel celebrates his debut on the Salzburg bench in the home game against Klagenfurt on Sunday.

(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

Onur Cinel, the interim coach at reigning soccer champions FC Red Bull Salzburg, will make his debut on the Bulls' bench this afternoon. The 38-year-old has trusted local support. Because Sturm Graz already took the lead in the table on Friday, the team from Mozartstadt will have to follow suit. 

Ten Salzburg coaches celebrated a successful debut as Bulls coach, picking up three points in their very first game. Only two (Ricardo Moniz and Kurt Jara) suffered defeats on their debut. Onur Cinel does not want to be included in this list, but would much rather be the eleventh winning starter.

The 38-year-old and his team are under pressure anyway. Sturm took the lead in the title fight on Friday with a narrow 1:0 home win against Rapid, and the team from Mozartstadt must and wants to follow suit. Opponents Klagenfurt today (17, live on Sky) must not be too big a hurdle, as the Carinthians have yet to win a game in the championship group. But: "They have a very experienced coach in Peter Pacult," says Cinel, who already knows the second Violet Austria team well, having played a test match against them with Liefering last summer. 

Salzburg want to cheer after the home game. Otherwise it will be tight in the championship race.

(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

"Work-life balance is great"
However, the German-Turk doesn't want to spend too much time on his opponents, preferring instead to focus on his own team and its strengths. He is definitely looking forward to his debut as Bulls coach: "It's very special, also because it's a home game. If we were playing away, it would be a different situation. I'm also very pleased that my family will be in the stadium." 

He is not worried that his temporary job in Salzburg and his additional role as assistant in the ÖFB team will cause him too much stress. "The work-life balance is great." However, there is no question that Cinel is very committed. In the first training session, he told his squad that they could call him at four in the morning. But then he backtracked a little: "I said that completely off the cuff because I don't expect anyone to actually call me at that time of night." 

I don't look at the last starting eleven and say that I have to change something now. I've seen a lot of players in training who are really getting stuck in.

Salzburgs Trainer Onur Cinel zur Aufstellung

Unsurprisingly, the 38-year-old was tight-lipped about the personnel for his debut. On Friday, he said that he "didn't have the line-up in mind yet". 

Good impressions in training
What is clear is that the new man will not do everything differently to his predecessor Gerhard Struber: "I'm not going to look at the last starting eleven and say that I have to change something now. I've seen a lot of players in training who really get stuck in. I make my decision based on these impressions." And this should then help him to a successful debut as Bulls coach