Slavia is the favourite against Linz! Absence in the defence, however, makes wrinkles on the forehead of the Susians

Prague Slavia will play the opening match of the Conference Europa League against LASK Linz tomorrow. The public and the bookmakers are very confident and nobody is thinking about anything else but a win at home. However, the match with the Austrian opponent has one big problem!

In a pre-match interview for the club’s TV, coach Jindřich Trpišovský clearly indicated that Slavia will have a hard time putting together a defence. Why, you ask? After all, David Hovorka and David Jurásek played great in the derby.

Well, there is a big problem. Hovorka and Jurásek are not on the roster for the ECL games, another big problem is that Slavia can’t use either Taras Kacharaba or Oscar Dorley. Both of them have to serve a yellow card penalty.

So what options does the Slavia management team have? Looking at the roster for UEFA competitions, it looks relatively scary.

It is almost certain that the same right side of the defensive four that played the derby against Sparta Prague will start. That’s the pairing of Alexander Bah and Aiham Ousou.

The left stopper could be Tomas Holeš, the healed Ondrej Kudel or Maksym Talovjerov, but for now the Slavs are using him as a defensive midfielder. And who will be the left back? There are basically two options on the table. Either Srdjan Plavsic or 16-year-old youngster Milos Pudil.

LASK, according to Jindřich Trpišovský, present a completely different football than Fenerbahce. It is primarily a duelling, strong team, which does not have the technical quality of the Turkish giant, but again has other strengths.

The coach of Slavia also warned against the attacking “ten” Sascha Horvath, who is a player of Linz. He is a very creative and technical player.

Source: SK Slavia Praha, Livesport, UEFA