According to Manfred Pamminger of FC Liefering, the Red Bull system is set in stone: every coach, staff member and player works according to the same model. It is based on pressing, counter-pressing and quick transitions. That system is refined in a high-tech complex with six pitches, an indoor hall, a weight room, an athletics room and a motor-skills park, along with sensors that collect data day and night.
The athletics room features a special sprint training device with belts around the players’ waists connected to computer-controlled winches. The high-tech gym has 13 stations where players log in by tablet and follow individual programmes while computer and trainer provide feedback. There is an anti-gravity treadmill designed originally for astronauts to speed up rehabilitation.
There is Soccerbot 360, where projectors create targets on a wall and players have to strike them with passes under time pressure while cameras and software evaluate speed, accuracy and foot usage. And there is LPM indoor tracking, which records the positions of players and ball at least 25 times per second, enabling exact measurement of running, acceleration, braking, possession, pass rates, heart rate, breathing and even skin temperature. Over the academy entrance in Liefering stands the slogan ENTER THE NEXT LEVEL.
Hardly a place for old carbon-age romantics of the blood-sweat-and-tears variety.