The conclusions of the ÖFB after the victory of the test match against Greece

It is well known that test games are not about points, but rather about gaining knowledge, ideally a positive one.

Austria defeated Greece on Thursday in Klagenfurt after a deficit of 2: 1, but did not want to rise up any cheer, the performance was too poor for ÖFB’s biggest claims.

Even if the third suit was working. Because in the absence of 13 potential members of the squad, the team boss, Franco Foda, put several players on the bench at the beginning, who can be counted on in the Nations League duels with Northern Ireland and Romania.

One or another experiment was announced, at the same time that one could acquire some knowledge, among others, in the following subject areas.

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LOUD LEGIONAIRS:

Even if you can get carried away with the “C-Elf” designation, you can’t avoid one fact: the 17 players used were exclusively legionaries.

This fact serves as an indication of how much the quality of the pool of available players has increased in recent years. Even players who are still in the third series of the ÖFB (Marco Friedl, for example) can be regular players in the German Bundesliga.

The fact that no Bundesliga players were used this time was of course mainly due to the absence of the Salzburg kickers; otherwise Cican Stankovic would have been in goal with a high probability. Jörg Siebenhandl (Sturm), Reinhold Ranftl (LASK), Maximilian Ullmann (Rapid) and Christoph Monschein (Austria) sat on the bench for 90 minutes.

THE PLAYER’S DEPOSIT:

This pool that is available to Foda is not getting smaller. With Friedl and Raphael Holzhauser, two other rookies proved that they can be used in the national team. Adrian Grbic and especially Christoph Baumgartner had already achieved it during the selection this fall.

If Austria can compete with the best lineup, the current rookies will focus primarily on the Hoffenheim legionnaire.

However, if all the candidates in question were actually available, it would be a pretty brutal battle for the team in the meantime. In this context, it should not be forgotten that the ÖFB has other, even younger forces up its sleeve in Hannes Wolf, Yusuf Demir and Marko Raguz who will not stop.

THE COUNTER-GOALS:

Another unnecessary goal. Again, one might get the impression that every opponent’s dangerous ball that goes to goal also lands on goal. This is not a new trend. It was the fifth consecutive international match in which the respective goalkeeper could not wait for a clean slate and again unnecessarily. The last to zero came with 1-0 in Slovenia, when the qualification for the EURO was decided.

It is good that the ÖFB team continues to allow little. It would be important to really act so focused for more than 90 minutes that you don’t have to complain about a goal. Because for Pervan, Schlager and Co. is naturally annoying when they can barely distinguish themselves but are beaten anyway.

Speaking of goalkeepers: Schlager and Stankovic are missing, there is no clear number one. In this way, it could be an exciting course for Pavao Pervan.

LACK OF OFFENSIVE SOLUTIONS:

Low speed, too much crossover play – that was too little offensive for a long time. Well, about a decade ago you would have applauded if you could have restricted an opponent of the level of Greece to your own half.

But here, too, the demands have increased, and that’s good.

Meanwhile, a second or third set can also be expected to turn oppressive superiority into at least more goal danger. There was a lack of creativity here, especially before the break. While the two pranksters Baumgartner and Michael Gregoritsch showed the same, other actors such as Alessandro Schöpf (ÖFB returns after almost two years) or Karim Onisiwo could not use this game to promote themselves. The same thing happened to Adrian Grbic for a long time when he made his debut, but a goal makes up for a lot.

THE PREVIOUS QUESTION:

Marko Arnautovic will miss this fall national team (unless there is a solution for the November course). That’s a shame in the first place. At the same time, however, he offers other forwards the opportunity to emancipate themselves and become the center of attention of the great shadow of the Chinese legionnaire. One may get the impression that this is happening slowly. Grbic scored against Greece, Onisiwo as a joker against Romania, Gregoritsch broke the spell in Norway and convinced against Greece as a joker.

Of course, in all cases and in all three games, more in a playful way is possible, but the signals are fine. Just because of age, sooner or later it will be necessary to intensely probe Arnautovic’s alternatives. And by the way: Sasa Kalajdzic’s debut is also yet to come.

THE BAUMGARTNER EFFECT:

Honor where honor is due. Baumgartner deserves an additional mention due to her previous performances in the ÖFB dress. Two goals in the first three internationals, plus consistently convincing performances – this is how you can imagine the audience for the national team. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the 21-year-old as a regular sooner rather than later. It will be exciting to see who gives way or what castling position would result.

David Alaba has only appeared four times in the last twelve international matches, but when he was fit, he was called up by the left wing. Baumgartner now has a good figure there. Both are known to be versatile. But a not illogical variant would be to leave Baumgartner in this role and nominate Alaba, especially in the absence of Ulmer, as a left back.

Text as: © LAOLA1.at

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