Bundesliga
Gulacsi: "We can compete with Bayern and Dortmund"
As if RB Leipzig's 4-0 thumping of Union Berlin in their season opener on Sunday wasn't enough of a statement in itself, goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi hammered home the message post-match that his side have their sights trained on knocking Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund off the top two places this season.
The Red Bulls were effervescent from the off against the top-flight newcomers, with Julian Nagelsmann's side swarming all over their hosts and barely letting up throughout the 90 minutes. Come full time, the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game, even if the visitors could have had one or two more.
And Gulacsi, who kept a clean sheet and was never seriously troubled by any of the 13 attempts on his goal on Sunday, believes it is the result of a conscious decision made by the side following their third-placed finish in 2018/19, ten points behind runners-up Dortmund.
"We have a very young team still and we had a fantastic season last season," the 29-year-old told bundesliga.com after the match.
"We thought 'OK, let's improve and try to make the gap to the top two teams a little bit smaller'. Of course we want to compete with those teams and I think we have the squad for that and the potential in our team for that."
There is no arguing with that. Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg may be two of the more well-known members of Leipzig's attacking department, but Yussuf Poulsen excelled in keeping the home side's robust defenders occupied, Marcel Sabitzer scored one and grabbed three assists, while new signing Christopher Nkunku looked unstoppable when he came off the bench.
And with Nagelsmann at the helm the sense of optimism in Leipzig seems entirely justified, even at this early stage of the season.
The coach himself was pleased with his side and hinted at a new tactical string being added to the side's bow to leave them less reliant on the counter-attacking style largely employed to date.
"Compared to the DFB Cup game [against Bundesliga 2 side VfL Osnabrück last week], the boys stepped things up a gear," the 32-year-old said. "We were able to react well in certain situations. We wanted to have variety – including when we had possession. We had a good mix of possession and phases of counter-pressing."