LASK draw the consequences from the recent poor results and part ways with Thomas Sageder
Only one win from the last nine games was ultimately not enough for Thomas Sageder to keep his job at LASK. As the club announced on Wednesday, the team will be coached by Maximilian Ritscher on an interim basis until the end of the season.
“We didn’t take this decision lightly. However, recent sporting developments have now prompted us to give the team a new impetus. We now have to roll up our sleeves together and get the best out of the remaining seven rounds,” said Managing Director Sport Radovan Vujanovic in an initial statement on the dismissal of the coach.
Sageder took over as head coach of Linz last summer and was on the sidelines for 37 competitive matches. After a satisfactory start, LASK found themselves just four points behind league leaders Salzburg in third place after 13 rounds. After that, however, the Upper Austrian club’s engine began to falter: Although they celebrated victories against Tirol and Lustenau in their final games of the year, they drew against Vienna Austria and suffered a defeat in the derby against promoted side Blau-Weiß.
LASK with a disappointing start to the year
In the new year, LASK’s downward slide followed. Just seven points from the eight Bundesliga games, plus a stuttering offense that only scored three times. The Cup quarter-final defeat to Red Bull Salzburg was just the icing on the cake.
CEO Sigmund Gruber assured that Sageder gave everything for the club until the end and “invested an enormous amount of energy. Nevertheless, the Linzers fell short of their expectations. “Nevertheless, we are now looking positively to the future and hope to release some energy for the last seven games in the championship group. Maximilian Ritscher was the obvious solution for us. He knows the club and the team very well, already has plenty of experience in the professional game and enjoys our full confidence,” said Gruber.
Until recently, Ritscher was assistant coach at the Athletikern and will now be supported by Thomas Darazs as assistant coach. The previous assistants Marcel Lücke and Christoph Tebel are no longer part of the coaching team.
