Salzburg in crisis

Straight talk from Bidstrup: “That’s not good enough!”

Mads Bidstrup (center) does not want to gloss over the situation.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

There has been a lot of sand in the gears at Red Bull Salzburg since their promotion to the Champions League at the end of August. While coach Pepijn Lijnders is optimistic, Mads Bidstrup puts his finger in the wound. 

In eight games in the Bundesliga and Champions League since then, the former serial champions have only managed two wins, and in Wolfsberg they had to settle for a point despite being outnumbered. Until WAC striker Markus Pink was sent off (51'), the Red Bulls were harmless and did not get a single shot on target, after which the runners-up clearly dominated, but there were only two top-class chances in the closing stages.

Nevertheless, Lijnders did not see the performance as bad. "I saw a team that believed in themselves right up to the last minute, tried everything, created chances, but nothing went in. It's clear that we should have won here. Luck will come back to us," said coach Pepijn Lijnders. "I'm not talking about a crisis, the season is so long, you don't lose the championship today," said the Dutchman in the Sky interview.

"A difficult time"
Bidstrup was more critical of the clean sheet. "The result and performance are not good enough. Things are not easy for us at the moment. You could see today that there was a lack of pace in the game. We're in a difficult time, we have a lot to make up for," explained the Danish midfielder.

The Dane, like Bernhard Seonbuchner, emphasized that it was not down to the quality of the squad. "We qualified for the Champions League with this squad. There was good energy in the team at that point. Whether the Champions League can be the yardstick is another story. We find it difficult to score goals in the Bundesliga. But the squad is strong enough to play up front in the Bundesliga," said the Salzburg sporting director in an interview with Sky. The demands have been higher in Salzburg in the past.

The level that the team currently offers is "average", admitted the German. "The self-image is not at 100 percent right now, you have to work on that through many small steps."