For the second time this week, Pep Lijnders’ Red Bull Salzburg were thrashed as Stefan Bajcetic started in an astonishing 5-0 defeat to Sturm Graz.
After being beaten 4-0 at home by Brest in the Champions League, Salzburg suffered their second humiliating defeat in the space of a week.
Having been on the bench for Tuesday’s loss to Brest, Bajcetic started in the Austrian Bundesliga as Salzburg faced league leaders Sturm Graz.
With help from loanee Vitezslav Jaros, who made his Liverpool debut at the weekend, Sturm Graz won a league and cup double last season, disrupting Salzburg’s dominance.
Until last season, Die Roten Bullen had won 10 league titles in a row, so to lose by five goals this weekend sent shockwaves through Austrian football.
While the 4-0 loss to Brest produced a scoreline perhaps undeserving of the young side’s performance – they have already started 10 different under-21s in this Champions League campaign – there could be no complaints after Sunday’s humiliation.
Bajcetic played just 13 minutes against Brest so he started against Sturm Graz and played his first full 90 minutes of the season.
While he wasn’t one of Salzburg’s worst performers, it would be difficult to hand out any praise given the humbling scoreline.
After the match, Lijnders told Salzburg’s official website: “Their pressing caused us lots of problems and they scored when they had their moments.
“Sturm were very efficient, and deserved the win, of course. It was definitely one of the worst matches I’ve seen from us.
“It’s a long season, and lots of things have worked well already. We are wondering why we are a shadow of our true selves at the moment.”
Last week, Austrian newspaper the Krone reported that a few squad members think Bobby Clark and Bajcetic “have not yet impressed in sporting terms” and “some players have recently been puzzled about starting XI call-ups.”
Bajcetic has started all three league games for which he has been available, while Clark has been used from the bench in the league but started both Champions League matches, since moving from Liverpool for £10 million.
At a club that is used to winning, they won’t accept these heavy defeats for long.
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