The Red Bull Revolution - Taking Over Europe

[Sam91]

Red Bull Salzburg

About The Club

FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian association football club, based in Wals-Siezenheim. Their home ground is the Red Bull Arena. Due to sponsorship restrictions, the club is known as FC Salzburg and wears a modified crest when playing in UEFA competitions.[3]​
The club was known as SV Austria Salzburg, and had several sponsored names, before being bought by the Red Bull company in 2005 who renamed the club and changed its colours from its traditional violet and white to red and white. The change resulted in some of the team's fans forming a new club, SV Austria Salzburg.
Founded in 1933, the club won its first Austrian Bundesliga in 1994, which was the first of three in the space of four seasons which also saw them reach the 1994 UEFA Cup Final.


Key Players

Jonathan Soriano

The ex Barcelona man is our captain and best player by far. Should score goals for fun in the league and I'll be looking to him to try and make a difference for us in Europe!




Martin Hinteregger

Big solid centre back with some very decent stats for a 21 year old!! With Andre Ramalho leaving for Leverkusan in January on a free he's our key man at the back.



Valentino Lazaro

Austria's boy wonder. Kids got tons of flair and will be our main creative force going forward I feel, will play in that number ten role and I'm hoping his flair will make things happen for us.

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Formation

Going to use my tried and trusted 4-2-3-1 which I'm most comfortable using and I feel its the best formation for the team also. Its still early in the transfer window and I'm trying to find a decent left winger for us as we are lacking a bit in that area.



Next update will be after the transfer window
​

 

[CantGetEnoughOfJelavic]

Soriano looks quality! That 18 year old also looks like he could be something special.

 

[DreamTempest]

Not Redbull lol they are EVERYWHERE
Good luck though, Austrian Bundesliga teams are quite good and can go far

 

[Safc-mad-scotty]

Good start mate, like the look of Lazaro. Will be following!

 

[SeanKeaney]

I've had a fall out with Hinterreger before, be careful with him he can be a handful!

 

[Sam91]

I've had a fall out with Hinterreger before, be careful with him he can be a handful!

Not Redbull lol they are EVERYWHERE
Good luck though, Austrian Bundesliga teams are quite good and can go far

Good start mate, like the look of Lazaro. Will be following!

Cheers guys, yeah Hinterreger seems to have a bit of a hot head something you'll see me struggling with in the update which will be out tonight ☺

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[Sam91]

July/August 2014

Two notable sales and one signing
Mixed start in the league
Champions League qualifiers



Transfers

So I wasn't given too much to work with money wise but managed to sign Hadzic who's a ball winning midfielder who is also very versatile and can play anywhere at the back too. I decided to sell right back Schwegler for a decent enough fee as he wasn't gonna feature too much and is the wrong side of 30. Then number 1 Walke had just a year left on his contract and was asking for silly wages for us and he would have just got in the way of 16 year old Valentino Jovic getting some game time.

Hadzic

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League Results

Seven league games in and we've won 5 but lost 2 as well!! I wont lie I really only expected Rapid and Austria Wien to cause us problems but some of the smaller teams have caused us some real issues!! Maybe its because I'm still getting used to the team and everything but we really did play awful in those two games.

Anything I noted was the fact we kept just ONE clean sheet!! That needs addressing swiftly. Going forward we look deadly though, Soriano's been immense but has gone missing a couple of times. Lazaro is your typical 18 year old cocky kid who loves the ball at his feet but needs to offer more off it. On the wings Bruno has impressed when he hasn't been out injured. Sabitzer has impressed though on the right.


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Champions League Qualifiers

Blimey we made a meal of it didn't we!!! Considering we were strong favourites in both ties we really could have done with impressing away from home to be honest!! Impressive enough at home though, especially that game against HJK knocking 4 in without reply was nice. Minamino our young Japanese left winger shone for me. Anyway lets have a look at our group:

It really could have been much worse considering we were seeded fourth!! Hoping we can pinch third place maybe and enter the Europa League.



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Monthly Review


So all in all it wasn't the best or worst start, disappointed we lost two league games as I was only expecting the Wein sides to cause us problems. The league will probably still be settled in those games though to be honest so should be an interesting battle in the league actually. In the Champions League anything can happen in that group!! Benfica should run away with it, Shalke are a decent side too but anything can happen and ourselves and Ajax have some nifty players who can cause anyone problems.

Stand out players so far for me have been Christoph Leitgeb in centre midfield, Ankersen at full back and Andre Ramalho. Sadly the latter is moving to Levekusan and we will hugely miss him when he leaves. Ankersen has been fantastic at full back and I dread its only a matter of time before a big club comes knocking. Leitgeb has been somewhat surprisingly, our best player so far. Seven assists in eleven games is superb at any level.

Sadly just after the window shut I got this email:

The hot head centre back who is brilliant, yet somewhat eccentric, has attracted attention from Liverpool. Having already clocked up a red and 4 yellows I let him know that when they make an offer I'll accept and let him leave. But with him and Ramalho leaving I'll need to find 2 new centre backs come January....



Player of the Month

The 29 year old has been superb in the middle of the park, very consistent and creative.



Table

Not just us who's slipped up though!! Caught between Austria and Rapid in second place and a point off top. Will take a few months for the league to take shape I feel, gonna be an interesting battle!!​

 

[TomasVZ]

I loved this team with K.Kampl. Wish good luck in CL, I think u can get into next round. And u should dominate domestic competition.

 

[CantGetEnoughOfJelavic]

Champions League group could be tough, may even have a real tough run for the title! That Hadzik looks very good and versatile though

 

[Sam91]

The First Big Match

So my first ''big'' game was upon me!! Third placed Rapid Wien who were just a point behind us came into this match having also lost two games already this season. Reading my scouts report of them I noted they liked to play with two defensive midfielders which was interesting, hopefully we can build from the back and slowly break them down.

Sadly we were missing captain and star man Soriano who'd picked up a knock and was out for 2 weeks!! Lets see how we lined up anyway:

As I thought two CDM's. Our ''flair three'' would have to weave some magic to unlock that back 6. I would certainly be looking to Lazaro here to show me something special as the kid can create something from nothing.


Result

Argh **** sakes. The first half was basically highlightless barring a mazy run from Lazaro to lay it off to Leitgeb who sliced his shot wide.

The second half kicked off and just after the 50 minute mark a free kick from Wien was whipped in and Hadzic gave away a stupid penalty. Hofmann slammed it home straight down the middle. Just what I didn't want, to go behind to them at their ground when they were playing with 2 CDM's!! We'd been the better team the stats showed though and I made a couple of changes in central midfield which seemed to do the trick after Lazaro picked the ball up near the halfway line, beat 2 men and played it into Djuricin who turned on the pass and curled it home from just on the edge of the box. We continued to pressure them but simply couldn't break them down!!

Before the match I probably would have taken the draw but we really should have won as the stats show:

They seem to have restricted us to efforts from outside the box hence just 3 of our 11 efforts being on target. Never mind, fair play to them. Here's how the league table looks after that game:

Level on points at the top but Austria Wien have a game in hand against struggling SV Ried....​

 

[Sam91]

Trouble in Paradise.....

Knock, Knock
There was a sharp double rap on my door not but an hour after we'd just drawn away to struggling SV Ried. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone but before I could even reply in walked Valentino Lazaro.

''Boss I need a word'' he sharply said.

''What is it Laz I'm really not in the mood right now''

''Look I'm really not happy, Peter was right the squad isn't big enough and I wanna know what you're gonna do about it?''

I didn't like his tone. About a month ago with a couple of weeks left in the transfer market Peter Ankersen came to me and complained about the size of the squad. I let him know I felt the squad was big enough but lets just say we still didn't agree. It seems the discontent is spreading though, stupid footballers this club doesn't have tons of money and the squad was easily big enough 28 first team players we ****** had!!

''Look Valentino the squads big enough, we don't have tons of money to strengthen anyway. I'm not budging on this.''

He seemed ****** by that. ''I can't believe you're going to ignore the fact your players aren't happy about this!!''

''I'm the boss here not you or Peter or anyone else in that dressing room. If I were you I'd be more worried about my performances on the pitch than the size of the squad!! Get out of my sight''

He stormed out slamming the door behind him. Jumped up little kid, he was just 18 but a key player for us all the same. Peter Ankersen is also one of our rising stars.. this isn't looking good if they both try and force moves away from the club. Time to start looking for replacements.

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[alphaguru]

A frustrating draw there but it's still early days!

 

[Sam91]

A frustrating draw there but it's still early days!

Very much so. Just gotta hope I can get this squad happy!! September update will be out tomorrow night

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Very much so. Just gotta hope I can get this squad happy!! September update will be out tomorrow night

Great to see you back! Very good group in the Champions League. Looks like Uncle Sepp may have had his Red Bull pay off for that one!

 

[CantGetEnoughOfJelavic]

Oooh, I like that post! Keep it up bud!

 

[Sam91]

Oooh, I like that post! Keep it up bud!

Thanks mate just about to type up Septembers update had a crazy couple of days sorry!!

 

[Sam91]

September 2014

Big games against Rapid and Austria Wien
Austrian FA Cup game
Kick off our Champions League campaign



League

Just the three league games this month but 2 huge ones against title rivals Rapid and Austria Wien. I've already done a match report on the Rapid game which we really should have won and very nearly lost save a screamer from Djuricin. But it was much better stuff against Austria Wien at home with a brilliant 3-0 win, we totally outclassed them really and I was hoping to pick up all 3 points at home to them for sure. The away day struggles continued though against struggling SV Ried with a draw despite having 18 shots against them!!



Austrian FA Cup

Second game in the FA Cup and second win. I gave some of the fringe players a run out and they did well even though we fell behind!! They had two players sent off in the second half as they lost their cool.



Champions League

Ouch.... we did really well against Benfica, took the lead until the 68th minute when they equalised. Our defence didn't hold out and Gaitan stole the points but it gives me hope for the return leg. Shalke were a class apart and dismantled us at our own place, they should win this group really.


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Monthly Review


Not too bad of a month I guess. Shame we couldn't pick up all 9 points on offer in the league but hey ho. We played well which is a good sign. The Champions League group is still very open which your'll see in a bit, third place is not out of reach yet. In other news Marseille came in for Martin Hinteregger and I managed to agree a deal of £3.4m with some nice clauses thrown in as well so he's off in January along with Andre Ramalho so I'm gonna need two new centre backs for sure in that window.

Also Valentino Lazaro is unhappy and Peter Ankersen has some slight concerns so they may also be heading out which means a total rebuild of the squad nearly which will be interesting for sure.



Player of the Month

Andre Ramalho

A real shame he's leaving in January, such a class centre back for us. Not had a bad game yet this season.



Tables

So even though we beat Austria Wien they're still ahead due to the two draws we had. Good job we beat them otherwise they'd be running away with it a bit!! In the Champions League its still a very open group and 3rd is still achievable in my eyes providing we get something off Ajax and beat Benfica at our place.​

 

[wr1097]

Quite unlucky to get a relatively difficult Champions League group.

What skin are you using? It looks good.

 

[Sam91]

Quite unlucky to get a relatively difficult Champions League group.

What skin are you using? It looks good.

I definitely underestimated that Champions League group. The skin I use is called Kybeks its really good got loads of different backgrounds you can use too

 

[Sam91]

October 2014

Three simple league games this month
Champions League tie against Ajax
Start to blood youth team centre backs to prepare for January


League

Three league games this month and we pick up maximum points!! The two home games were simple enough and even though the away match to SCR Altrach looks close we were always in control really. I've switched up my two tactics a bit and we seem to be playing a lot better football and getting the results too.



Austrian FA Cup

Just the one tie against lowly Wiener SK which we played very well in. I managed to give Sorensen and Kaufmann a run out at centre back and they played very well. Sorensen even getting an assist. Onto the quarters where we will play Rapid Wien!!



Champions League

Another 2-0 loss in the Champions League. Two penalties conceded other than that we gave them a good match, I was still tweeking my counter tactic here and paid the price I feel.



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Monthly Review


Barring the Champions League we had a very good month here. Three wins in the league out of three was a good feeling, always nice to string together some wins. The FA Cup result was solid as well, and a good opportunity to rest some key players and give some younger ones a run out to show me what they can do. I'll still need to invest in January though especially at the back.

No much other news to do with the club, some players are still slightly ****** off at me but we're getting results and thats all that matters right now. We'll see come January if anyone hands in a transfer notice and I'll be looking to offload anyone who doesn't want to be here.



Player of the Month

Soriano's not impressed me as much as I thought so its a good job my back up striker's been so good this season. 4 goals in 5 games this month for the lad.



Tables

Barring a miracle even third looks out of reach now in the Champions League. But we haven't nicked first place now but its still tight and I believe it will be for the whole season between us and Austria Wien.​