If Heimir Hallgrímsson found time in the past while to do some homework on Austria to give himself a notion of the team Ireland might face in Thursday’s Nations League meeting in Dublin, he’d have had his work cut out.
After opening their campaign against Israel last Thursday, Austria head coach Ralf Rangnick made six changes to his side for Sunday’s meeting with Kosovo. In all, he used 24 players across the two ties. They won both 3-1, so he’d have been content enough with his chopping and changing.
He named a youthful enough squad for the window, one that featured five uncapped players and eight changes from the group he took to the World Cup. He had been forced in to a rebuild after the loss of a slew of Austria’s biggest names, among them captain David Alaba, lead-scorer Marko Arnautović and midfielder Marcel Sabitzer, the trio with over 350 caps between them.
After being released by Real Madrid at the end of last season, Alaba was left without a club until he signed for Udinese last week, so he was omitted for this window. Arnautović retired from international football after the World Cup, and Sabitzer opted to take a break from the national team.
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Add in the absence of RB Leipzig attacker Christoph Baumgartner, who is still recovering from the injury that ruled him out of the World Cup, and his successor as Austrian player of the year in 2025, Bayern Munich’s Konrad Laimer, and Rangnick had little option but to engage in some experimentation.
On the absentees’ front, his one bit of good news ahead of the trip to Dublin is that Laimer has returned to the squad after being ruled out of those opening games with an adductor issue.
The one unit of his team that he left unchanged – and rarely alters – was the midfield pairing of Xaver Schlager and Nicolas Seiwald, RB Leipzig team-mates until Schlager joined Nottingham Forest during the summer. They are tasked with shielding the defence in Rangnick’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.
Elsewhere? Take your pick. He has a goalkeeping issue to sort out, his usual first choice Alexander Schlager probably ruing a move to Werder Bremen during the summer, Estonian Karl Hein remaining the club’s number one. Schlager played against Israel but Rangnick gave 19-year-old Christian Zawieschitzky a debut against Kosovo. Schlager is, though, likely to be restored, Rangnick reassured by him at least getting some cup action with his club.
In the absence of Alaba at the heart of Austria’s defence, Rangnick has been alternating between Sunderland’s Kevin Danso, SC Freiburg’s Philipp Lienhart and Fulham’s David Affengruber, Danso the only one of the trio to start against Israel and Kosovo. He’s played around with his full-backs too, although FSV Mainz pair Phillipp Mwene and Stefan Posch are his usual preferences.
The loss of Arnautović and Sabitzer has necessitated some more reconstruction further up the field, although he’s kept the faith with Romano Schmid, who now plays his football in Serie A with Frosinone. TSG Hoffenheim’s Patrick Wimmer played both games last week, and was especially impressive in the second, while PSV Eindhoven’s Paul Wanner and Werder Bremen’s Marco Grüll were both given a run at playing off the front man.
Incidentally, forget Declan Rice, Jack Grealish and the like – Wanner (20), who started his senior career with Bayern Munich, was at the centre of one of football’s longer running will-he-won’t-he-declare-for-us sagas having represented Germany all through the underage ranks. He finally declared for the country of his birth in March.
In the same month, Carney Chukwuemeka switched his international allegiances from England to Austria, the former Aston Villa and Chelsea winger adding to Rangnick’s attacking options. He scored their third goal against Kosovo when he came on as a sub.
And up top, Rangnick has been trialling his candidates too, FC Augsburg’s Michael Gregoitsch starting against Israel, FC Schalke’s Junior Adamu taking his spot against Kosovo and scoring his first international goal.
In short, Hallgrímsson should be forgiven if he has no idea what team Ireland will face. Austria will trust that Rangnick has a better notion.
