Konate's failure
Water on the mills of Salzburg’s critics
With three wins in their first three games, Salzburg have made a perfect start to the new season. However, the prolonged absence of striker Karim Konate is dampening the good mood at the Bulls. A column by "Krone" sports editor Christoph Nister.
That's what you call a tailor-made start: new head coach Pep Lijnders celebrated just as many victories with Salzburg in the first three competitive matches.
While the 6:0 win in the Cup in Dornbirn was still a warm-up match, the Bulls were put to the test much more in the Bundesliga against GAK (3:2). Twente Enschede were the first international opponents in the qualifiers for the premier class, and the team from Mozartstadt were determined to get them out of the way. The 2:1 home win underlined that Lijnders' system is working. After a disappointing previous season, the 41-year-old has turned a lot of things around at the runners-up and provided fresh impetus.
Nevertheless, the first three wins are at best a first step in the right direction. The standards at the Salzach are higher than elsewhere. Here, victories are often taken for granted and titles are the order of the day. This makes the loss of Karim Konate all the more painful.
The Ivorian, top scorer in the Bundesliga in 2023/24 despite a persistent slump in form during the season, will probably not be ready to play again until September and is likely to miss both the second leg in Enschede and the potential play-off matches against the winner of the Dynamo Kiev v Rangers Glasgow clash.
The striker cannot be replaced on a one-to-one basis, as the first leg against the Dutch side showed. His absence is also grist to the mill of the critics. They have been calling for several top-class additions for the current season for weeks. The victories over Dornbirn, GAK and Twente have not helped much so far.
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