Rangnick on the lookout

“I don’t see the Haaland from Austria yet”

Ralf Rangnick (2nd from left) is faced with a precarious situation at striker.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Soccer team boss Ralf Rangnick has announced the ÖFB squad for the Nations League away games against Slovenia on September 6 and against Norway on September 9. The situation at striker is currently tense. According to the team manager, he does not see an Erling Haaland in Austria at the moment. 

With Kevin Stöger (Gladbach) and Arnel Jakupovic (NK Maribor), Rangnick has called up two potential debutants. In addition, Junior Adamu (Freiburg) returns to the ÖFB squad. The call-ups of Stöger and Adamu had been expected. The nomination of Jakupovic came as more of a surprise.

The 26-year-old striker grew up in the youth ranks of Vienna Austria, then had contracts at Middlesbrough, Empoli, Juventus and Sturm Graz, among others, and most recently proved his scoring talent at NK Maribor. "He scored five goals in his first five games for Maribor. We did some research on him, spoke to his coach on the phone and watched several games on video. He's a left-footer who knows where the goal is and has a really good shooting technique."

Where is our Haaland?
Jakupovic also benefited from the fact that the ÖFB squad is not brilliant in attack anyway and that Gregoritsch, Kalajdzic and Entrup are also out. Rangnick is aware of the precarious situation in attack. "We don't have that many players up front," said the team boss. "I don't see Erling Haaland from Austria at the moment. Maybe he's lying dormant somewhere as a ten-year-old."

Arnel Jakupovic

(Bild: GEPA)

Instead, 35-year-old Marko Arnautovic is back in the squad. A possible team retirement of the ÖFB record player was not an issue. "I spoke to him on the phone again today. He didn't even hint to me that he would retire, so it was clear that he would be invited back," explained Rangnick.

Interesting options
The 66-year-old would also have liked to have German-Austrian dual national Paul Wanner, who recently scored a goal for Heidenheim against St. Pauli. However, the 18-year-old does not want to declare himself yet. "He wants to establish himself as a Bundesliga player first. If he had chosen us, he would have had to play for Austria for the rest of his career, so I absolutely understand that he wants to wait and see," said Rangnick. The case is similar for 20-year-old Croatian-Austrian dual national Franjo Ivanovic, a native of Tyrol and now a striker for Rijeka.

Paul Wanner

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Please also wait for Alaba - the Real Madrid professional, who is suffering from the after-effects of a cruciate ligament rupture, is unlikely to feature in the national team this year. "I don't expect to see him before the March training course." It would be "dubious" to bring Alaba in for the November games, for example. Rangnick emphasized that it is important that the Viennese is back at full strength for next year's World Cup qualifiers.

Wöber and Baumgartner injured
Christoph Baumgartner and Maximilian Wöber will probably not be in top form for the team, with both having recently returned from injuries. According to Rangnick, it is "unlikely" that Baumgartner will play through both matches. As far as the team boss knows, Wöber will probably stay with Leeds, although he is not in an easy position there.

Rangnick will welcome his protégés to Carinthia on Monday and they will train in Klagenfurt. They will travel to Ljubljana on Thursday and then on to Oslo on Saturday. Before that, they will also have to come to terms with their bitter exit from the European Championship round of 16 against Turkey. "It has never taken me so long to come to terms with the negative outcome of a game," reported the national coach.

Good team spirit
The "Welcome Back" video, which the ÖFB players traditionally watch before the start of a training session, will be particularly emotional this time, Rangnick said. "I had tears in my eyes every time I watched it." The team boss reviewed the hours after the elimination. "The entire team sat together in the hotel lobby for two or three hours until four in the morning, sometimes in silence, without cell phones. That is remarkable and shows the extreme cohesion of the group. When we said goodbye the next day, many tears were shed. That shows how much longer we would have liked to have been there." Against the Turks, however, they "didn't match the group games 100 percent in terms of energy".

Rangnick described the upcoming Nations League games as a "fresh start. We try to approach each of these games as if they were the next most important, which they are. But of course the tension is different to that of the European Championship. We now have to build that up again and build on the last few months," said the German.

Rangnick is unperturbed by the fact that they start away from home against the strongest group opponents on paper. "We'll take it as it is. I prefer to play such away games when the weather is still nice." The aim is to further develop the team and achieve good results in order to be drawn from pot one in the World Cup qualifying draw and climb back into the top tier of the Nations League.