Three key LASK men St Johnstone need to keep under control

LASK have a budget 10 times the size of St Johnstone and have retained a strong squad for 2021/22 despite allowing a few players to move on in the close season.

The average age is still in the mid-20s and they are almost certain to adopt their usual 3-4-3 formation, with a highpress game plan.

Courier Sport picks out three key men for the Austrian side.

Alexander Schlager

Only two players from the Austrian Bundesliga were selected for the country’s Euro 2020 squad and LASK’s goalkeeper was one.

He was actually the starting keeper in the recent World Cup qualifiers and played in the 2-2 draw with Scotland at Hampden Park a few months ago.

Schlager was replaced by Daniel Bachmann of Watford after a 4-0 defeat to Denmark and has yet to win his place back.

Saints benefited from goalkeeping howlers in both legs of the Galatasaray match and Callum Davidson’s analysis is sure to pick up the fact that Schlager was rooted to his line when Grant Hanley scored Scotland’s first equaliser, and that he flapped at a corner just before John McGinn’s overhead kick.

The 25-year-old has also seen Saints’ star midfielder Ali McCann close-up.

He was on the bench when McCann made his

Northern Ireland debut in the Nations League in November.

Thomas Goiginger

As strong as they are as a collective unit, there hasn’t been much in the way of transfer speculation about the LASK players in the last couple of seasons.

The exception has been 28-year-old winger Thomas Goiginger.

A bit of a late-career bloomer, he was linked with a £5 million move to Southampton a couple of years ago.

Quick and skilful, Goiginger can play on either wing.

He’s the LASK version of Glenn Middleton.

Goiginger has been called up several times for Austria but has just one cap to his name. That came in November, 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Latvia.

Marko Raguz

The 23-year-old represented Austria at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 level.

Had it not been for a season-ending cruciate knee injury sustained against Antwerp in November, Raguz would probably have been sold in the summer.

He is still working his way back to full match fitness and got 20 minutes of action off the bench in LASK’s weekend defeat to Sturm Graz.

If Saints are tiring in the late stages of the match, Raguz will be ready to capitalise.

Keeper Alexander Schlager in action.