Football Season Guide

LASK are coming from a wildly successful 2017/18 season that saw the Linzers never look like a newly-promoted side and go on to clinch a European place by finishing fourth in the Bundesliga table. Their excellent campaign has hardly come as too much of a surprise, given that Oliver Glasner has been carefully assembling their side since taking over two years ago, while the size of the club is such that they have more pulling power than pretty much any side in the league outside of the big four. The Linzers have not changed too much over the course of the summer, with several rotation players leaving and the sole true blow being the departure of keeper Pavao Pervan. The custodian's last season's form made him an Austrian international, but he has been snapped up by Wolfsburg. Glasner has decided to replace Pavao with Thomas Gebauer, who he managed at Ried, while the list of arrivals includes two Bundesliga players that had excellent seasons in Wolfsberger's Dominik Frieser and Admira's Markus Wostry. Yusuf Otubanjo, who joins from Zilina, failed to impress on loan at Altach last season, while Fabian Benko and Florian Jamnig are unknown quantities at this level. All in all, LASK have definitely kept the core of the squad that performed ever so well last season. They have done superbly well during Glasner's two-year reign and will enter the new season with optimism.