{"id":1618,"date":"2020-10-22T07:26:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T06:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1618"},"modified":"2020-10-23T11:56:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T10:56:36","slug":"a-quick-viennese-aperitif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1618","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Viennese Ap\u00e9ritif"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Courtesy of Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It remains a source of disappointment and no little anguish\nthat for a club of our history, stature and success in English football our\nrecords in European competitions don\u2019t do justice to the various wonderful\nteams we have had in our history. This is most relevant, and painfully so, to\nthe few magnificent teams that one Ars\u00e8ne Wenger had assembled especially in\nthe first decade of his remarkable tenure. The most painful to revisit of those\nfailures would have been the 2006 Champions League final loss, but personally\nfor me the peerless team of 2003-2004 season not winning the Champions League\nremains the biggest what-if of those years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Europa league, however underwhelming it might be compared to the prestigious billing of its wealthier cousin, is definitely an opportunity to improve upon that record.  Our last European success came in UEFA Cup Winners\u2019 Cup in 93-94, when a solitary goal from Alan Smith and a typical rearguard action from the much-vaunted George Graham defense saw us victorious against a free-flowing charismatic Parma side. Since then the Cup Winners\u2019 Cup has been discontinued and merged into what used to be the UEFA Cup, which then later mutated into today\u2019s version of Europa League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning the Europa League of course is also another avenue of getting back into the Champions League where we used to be a permanent presence for two decades, even after we stopped being the very best in the premier league, even when our best players were leaving for greener pastures without being immediately replaced by expensive buys. The last few years of doldrums and chaos may have made us forget the relative serenity of those times \u2013 at least relative serenity to some of us who acknowledged that achievement without losing appetite for greater ones \u2013 but with the signs of visible progress being made under our new manager and what appears to be enthusiastic backing of his squad building exercise by the hierarchy there is hope that at minimum we will recapture that degree of consistency and then move on to the next level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be our fourth consecutive year in this second tier\nof European club competitions. We lost in the semi-final to Atletico Madrid in Ars\u00e8ne\u2019s\nlast season, 2017-18. Europa League specialist Unai Emery \u2013 with four titles\nwith Sevilla \u2013 then took us to the finals in 2018-19 despite abysmal domestic\nform in the second half of the season, relying significantly on the individual\nbrilliance of Aubameyang and Lacazette and their mutual understanding in the\nattacking third, but structural chaos and the lack of self-confidence in the\nteam eventually caught up with them to underperform and capitulate in the\nfinal. In last season\u2019s Europa League group stage the Arsenal team, comprising\na handful of youngsters, occasionally thrilled us with some free-flowing high\nscoring football that stood in stark contrast to the team\u2019s turgid performance\nin the league and rapidly worsening results that eventually brought an end to\nthe short-lived Emery era. The superb Bukayo Saka especially caught the eye,\nand while he was a far from unknown entity among Arsenal fan base given his\nglowing reputation from the Arsenal youth set-up his partner in excellence in\nthose matches —  a teenager brought in\nfrom the fourth tier of Brazilian football — was an equal source of joy and\ngiven his anonymity until then also a cause for pleasant surprise. Gabriel\nMartinelli unfortunately has been sidetracked since the post-pandemic reopening\nbecause of an injury sustained in training and subsequent surgery, we can but\nhope for his prompt return to the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We lost, somewhat unexpectedly, in the round of 32 last\nseason to Olympiacos based on away goals rule despite a magnificent overhead\nkick goal from Aubameyang at home. The loss came a little before the pandemic\nenforced halt to the season, and once the season resumed we increasingly\nmorphed into a much more tactically astute and structurally organized team that\nrelied as much on its defensive resilience and tactical maturity as on the excellence\nof its goal scorers to arrest the slide in the league and against all odds to\nwin the FA Cup. The kind of last minute loss we had suffered at the hands of\nOlympiacos in February we can safely say will be an extreme rarity going\nforward while Mikel is in charge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, while the PL remains the primary priority, Europa is not a competition that we will take lightly. Thankfully the group we are in helps the team to avoid the rigors of travels to far-flung corners of the Balkans or what is essentially almost Central Asia. Our away journeys will be limited to a few hours of flights to Austria, Norway and Ireland. The first of those journeys will be to play against one of the mainstays of Austrian football for the last hundred plus years and the most successful team in the Austrian Bundesliga with 32 titles \u2013 SK Rapid Wien, or Sportklub Rapid Wien, or Rapid Wien, or Rapid Vienna \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However their last league win was in 2007-2008, since then\nthe titles have been won mostly by the local nuveau riche RB Salzburg, and one\napiece by the surprising Sturm of Graz (similar to Leicester winning the PL)\nand Rapid\u2019s Vienna derby competitors Austria Wien. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While writing this review I was hoping to find some morsel of historical rumors tying Rapid Wien even remotely to the one of the many luminaries that brightened the glorious cultural and intellectual atmosphere of fin de si\u00e8cle Vienna. Maybe it was Freud who turned one of the early stars of the Rapid Wien team towards football from his previous boring existence of a banker\u2019s son? Maybe Schoenberg whistled out a tune in caf\u00e9 \u2013 before serialism stole his soul — which became the melody for the team chant? Maybe Robert Musil, already a sportsman and a military graduate, played a few matches with the Rapid Wien team while studying at the local University? :–)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still certain of the fact that if I really look for such connections I will definitely find them, I decided to save myself from such troubles and save you all from reading a prolonged panegyric on one of the most influential “time-in-place” of modern European civilization.  Yes, you are welcome. :–)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, forgetting the city, and focusing purely on the club: in the current season Rapid Wien is in the second position in the Austrian league now, two points behind the Salzburg after four matches. They started the season with a 4-1 home victory, followed by an 1-1 away draw at Graz, an 1-2 away victory and a 3-0 home victory against LASK, who are also in the Europa league this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rapid\u2019s current squad primarily consists of Austrian\nfootballers, with one player each from Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Bosnia,\nSlovenia, Montenegro, Japan and North Macedonia. There are no popular names\nknown across Europe. The overall quality in Austrian Bundesliga is a few levels\nbelow the more prestigious leagues in the neighboring Germany and Italy. The\npeak of Austrian football was most likely in the inter-war years when Rapid\nWien even won the German league in 1941 where the top Austrian teams were\nplaying following the annexation of Austria to Germany. Since the war they have\nhad great success in the resumed Austrian league, and a few memorable seasons\nin the European competitions including couple of final losses at the Cup\nWinners\u2019 Cup, one of them being against Everton in 1985. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to Arsenal, Rapid now are managed by one of their\nvery own, an Austrian international and one of the most popular players in\nRapid\u2019s history. Dietmar K\u00fchbauer has been the manager of Rapid since 2018. He\nsets up his team mostly in 3-5-2, and his next preferred formation is 4-2-3-1,\nsometimes switching between formations within the game. He also prefers his\nteam to play out from the back, and while attacking Rapid often overloads the final\nthird with five players joining in, two players sitting in the middle to\nrecirculate ball and three-man defense staying up high. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a detailed tactical analysis of our opposition on\nThursday, I recommend https:\/\/totalfootballanalysis.com\/head-coach-analysis\/dietmar-kuhbauer-rapid-wien-2019-20-tactical-analysis-tactics<\/a>\n. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing at home, I think they will retain their attacking style but most likely will be a bit more cautious about maintaining the high defensive line. Arteta has slowly started to morph his team towards a more possession-centric football and I am guessing he will like to continue to hone the 4-3-3 (or more likely the 4-2-3-1 variation) system, using counter-attack after drawing the opponents in, as much as the patient build-up play from the back through the lines, as two alternative tactics for reaching their goalmouth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the injury news on the club website, Holding will\nbe out until the next interlull. But Mustafi is back whereas Mari and Chambers\nare still working back to full fitness. There are some niggles being reported\nfor Willian and Ceballos as well. Given the importance of our weekend match\nagainst Leicester \u2013 a solid six-pointer as they say \u2013 I think Arteta will not\nrisk starting with any of Aubameyang, Gabriel (who has been playing nonstop),\nPepe (especially given Willian\u2019s injury), Bellerin or Kieran.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may also not be the match for our new Icelandic goalkeeper to earn his debut given that any mistake by him will become amplified especially if we end up not winning, maybe a match at home towards the later days of the group stage after we are somewhat comfortably placed at the top will be a game where he takes the field. However, I think we will see Partey earning his first start-up and if the team is comfortably poised withdrawn early to keep him ready for the weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel will also need to find a place in the team for Nelson, Joe, and AMN. Whether he starts with Eddie or Lacazette upfront will definitely tell us who will start in the weekend. I think Ainsley may get a chance in his preferred right-sided winger\/midfielder role, often cutting in and allowing Cedric to drive and cross which is his best quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My predicted line-up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soares \u2013 Mustafi \u2013 Luiz \u2013 Kolasinac<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elneny \u2013 Partey   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMN \u2013 Willock \u2013 Reiss<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will have Xhaka, ESR, Lacazette, Saka, Pepe and Kieran on\nthe bench, in addition to R\u00fanarsson as the back-up goalkeeper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting the tournament with an away victory against what will be the toughest opposition in the group will be most welcome, and it will also help us with regaining any confidence lost in the last weekend\u2019s narrow defeat. My prediction is a hard-fought 3-1 win, with goals coming from Eddie, Reiss and Joe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy viewing everyone!   \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It remains a source of disappointment and no little anguish that for a club of our history, stature and success in English football our records in European competitions don\u2019t do justice to the various wonderful teams we have had in our history. This is most relevant, and painfully so, to the few magnificent teams that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1618"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}