4/22/2024

"We will show a different face"

After the immediate disappointment following sunday's 1-3 loss against TSV Hartberg, LASK quickly shifted focus to the next challenge. With the upcoming English week, the opportunity presents itself for the athletes to redeem the loss as early as wednesday in the rematch.

"It might be good that we play again directly on Wednesday without much training, without much thinking. I can promise that we will show a different face," emphasized captain Philipp Ziereis after the team's first home defeat in the third game at the Raiffeisen Arena in the Bundesliga championship group (read match report). Two training sessions remain until then to analyze the performance and take away the key insights for the fourth season duel with TSV on Wednesday, aiming for the first victory against the Styrians since June 2020.

"We also need to find better solutions in the final third. And we need the determination to score goals up front. We have to pick up the fight again, and the good thing is that we immediately have the chance for revenge," said Florian Flecker, who momentarily made the match against his former club exciting with his second goal of the season, after his first in September against Klagenfurt.

Florian Flecker (left) scored his second goal of the season against Hartberg.

Many crosses instead of low solutions

"In the end, some familiar difficulties emerged, namely, playing against an opponent defending in a compact block. 'We lacked ideas on how to penetrate the penalty area. We often sought the cross instead of playing an extra pass to get into the penalty area through a low route,' analyzed head coach Thomas Darazs. This is also supported by the statistical data: LASK recorded 35 crosses to 7, with accuracy heavily favoring the guests (17.1%:66.7%)."

For George Bello (right) and LASK it's important to quickly move on from the first home defeat in the championship group.

Additionally, the solutions provided by Hartberg in their build-up, as well as their clean and direct counter-attacking play - as expected beforehand - proved challenging. 'I believe that in the first half, Hartberg found good solutions against us. We didn't put much pressure on the ball, and they exploited the spaces behind us well,' said Flecker.

Darazs also identified the need for improvement in positioning at the moment of ball loss to quickly transition into counter-pressing. However, the 46-year-old added that the performance had nothing to do with a lack of attitude or willingness. Now, it's important to regenerate well and assess how "we can shape Wednesday with our means to reclaim the three points we left behind today".