After 0:5 in Leverkusen

Salzburg: The coaching question must be allowed

Following Salzburg's 5-0 defeat, the focus is now on Pep Lijnders.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

0:5 debacle against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League - the coaching question must be allowed at Red Bull Salzburg. A column by "Krone" editor Christoph Nister.

"We don't have to discuss the coach," explained Salzburg's sporting director Bernhard Seonbuchner after the 2-1 home defeat against LASK, adding: "You won't need to ask me about that in the coming weeks either. (...) I also don't believe that the coach missed the goal." Perhaps Seonbuchner is simply the wrong person to ask. In the meantime, the question itself is more than justified.

Salzburg put in another anemic performance in Leverkusen. Had it not been for Alexander Schlager, it could have been 0:5 or 0:6 at the break. Of course the players are on the pitch, make these mistakes and miss the target.

But the responsibility lies with the coach. So the question must be allowed: Is Pep Lijnders really still the right man for the job? "Intensity? Nothing at all! Mentality? Nothing," said Krone columnist and Sky expert Andreas Herzog at the break. "Discipline, character - that's subterranean," Marc Janko also did not hide his opinion.

Salzburg is a shadow of its former self. There are many reasons for this. It concerns the players (some lack quality), the sporting director (the squad was put together incorrectly), but also the coach, who seems to have lost "his" squad within a short space of time.