Packed fixture list? Bring it on!

FC Red Bull Salzburg

·24 September 2021

Packed fixture list? Bring it on!

we have extra reason to focus on our attacking efforts when we go away to RZ Pellets WAC this weekend. our defensive ranks are battered by a spate of injuries.

Matthias Jaissle and his boys are heading on the away trip to Carinthia with bad news in tow. It was announced on Friday morning that another central defender is ruled out for a long time in Kamil Piatkowski. This is the second major injury blow within a week following Oumar Solet last weekend. We are without four central defenders in total for the away trip on Saturday - with Albert Vallci and Maximilian Wöber, who has a minor problem. In better news: Bernardo is back and ready for action. 18-year-old Bryan Okoh also put in a great account of his talent in the 8-0 win in the cup, including his first goal.

On the subject of firsts - Matthias Jaissle has a chance to further extend his record start to the season against Wolfsberg AC. He has become the first coach to win all of his opening eight Austrian Bundesliga matches. The win against Rapid Vienna last Sunday saw him overtake Jesse Marsch. Going back to last season, we have 12 Austrian Bundesliga wins in succession and have the all-time record of Rapid in 1987 (14 wins in a row) in our sights.

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Taking three points back from WAC is never straightforward - our past record is testament to that. With 19 wins and 12 draws from 36 Austrian Bundesliga meetings, we have our noses well in front in the head-to-head record, but WAC have regularly given us a fright. Last season we drew one and lost one of our four games.

Our Red Bulls need to be on full alert straight after kick-off, as WAC have not been waiting around before getting stuck in this season. The fourth-placed side have scored nine goals in the opening 45 minutes. Only Sturm Graz (10) have scored more. The hosts dropped points in the league last weekend with a 3-3 draw against SV Ried, but were able to take a superb 6-1 win against Siegendorf in the UNIQA ÖFB Cup in the week.

One thing for sure is that the games are going to keep on coming until the international break at the start of October, and it is set to be a challenging period. The injury-depleted defence will be attracting a lot of attention and needs to be in good shape tomorrow. Matthias Jaissle has shown again and again that his boys are up for any challenge though - we are not unbeaten this season for nothing!

injury news

Kamil Piatkowski (ankle), Oumar Solet (knee), Sekou Koita (knee), Albert Vallci (Achilles), Zlatko Junuzovic (heel) and Max Wöber (thigh) are out injured.

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Matthias Jaissle on …

… the clash with WAC:

"The matches are coming thick and fast at the moment. It's important to recover well - physically but mentally too. Of course it's our aim to further extend our winning run in the league. We know though that it won't be easy. WAC are a good team, and they will push us to the limit. At the risk of repeating myself - no match in this league is a walkover. We will need another top attitude and performance against Wolfsberg."

Brenden Aaronson on …

… the clash ahead:

"We have a really good run that we are determined to keep going. We can only do that if we can build on the performances of recent matches. We need to be fully concentrated again on playing our style of football."

… the packed fixture list:

"We have a lot of matches in this phase, of course. We have earned the right to play in three competitions, and it's a lot of fun. The training load is carefully measured though so that we can recover well. Rotation really helps us with that."

most recent austrian Bundesliga clashes v WAC:

28.04.2021 FC Red Bull Salzburg 1–1 RZ Pellets WAC (H/T:0-0) 25.04.2021 RZ Pellets WAC 1–2 FC Red Bull Salzburg (1-1) 20.12.2020 FC Red Bull Salzburg 2–3 RZ Pellets WAC (0-0) 13.09.2020 RZ Pellets WAC 1–3 FC Red Bull Salzburg (0-2)