Bajcetic’s Strengths and Weaknesses Highlighted in Salzburg Loan Spell

High Hopes for Bajcetic

When he burst onto the scene during the 2022/23 season, Liverpool saw a lot of potential in Stefan Bajcetic.

Before his injury, he had established himself as a starting player under Jurgen Klopp. However, after a year out and lots of struggles to come back, Bajcetic’s career has definitely stagnated a little bit.

That is why he was sent out on loan to Red Bull Salzburg to link-up with Pep Lijnders and start anew.

But six months on, Bajcetic’s loan spell has been a little turbulent. Lijnders has left after being sacked, meanwhile the Liverpool midfielder is yet to establish himself as a starting player for the club.

He’s made just 8 starts in 18 appearances overall playing 890 minutes. Here Anfield Index takes a look at how he has gotten on statistically.

Stefan Bajcetic’s Numbers for Salzburg

Bajcetic has played most of his games for Salzburg as a defensive midfielder – often playing in a double pivot.

He’s a midfielder who will look to drop deep and progress the ball from those deeper areas.

He does this effectively. Whether that is through a dribble, averaging close to two dribbles (1.93) per 90 or deep penetrating passes.

This is problem his best asset, Bajcetic is very efficient at working the ball into enemy territory with line breaking passes.

Out of midfielders in the Austrian Bundesliga, who average at least 7 passes into the opposition’s final third he ranks 5th for accuracy (70.9%). This is the most efficient and developed side of his game.

Bajcetic has the vision and the ability to execute those passes and find his teammates in dangerous positions.

He’s a relatively good defender as well, winning 62.79% of his 5.94 defensive duels per 90 and making over eight recoveries per 90 in all competitions.

Although even in this area he can be a little bit rash. He is second out of midfielders in the Bundesliga for possession-adjusted slide tackles (1.42 per 90) and he does go to ground a lot – which is not the optimal form of defending, it should be the last resort for a defender.

Decision Making

And that last point brings us to Bajcetic’s major flaw so far in his Salzburg career. He’s incredibly raw and he often falls into the trap of making the wrong choices – not just in his defending but in his game as a whole.

For example, he averages a 42.86% dribble success rate, which is one of the lowest among his positional peers.

A lot of the times, Bajcetic will try to beat his opponent, but he doesn’t quite have the physicality to pull off the skill and runs into traffic. In these instances, a pass would have been more efficient rather than turning over possession for his team.

Offensively, he doesn’t really make a lot of impact from midfield either. He averages just 0.02 xA per 90 and his shot efficiency is among the top three lowest in the Austrian Bundesliga among his positional peers.

Bajcetic has taken 11 shots so far, averaging 1.52 shots per 90 but he has a shot on target percentage of just 9% meaning he has hit the target just once from his attempts.

A lot of the times, Bajcetic takes those shots from around 30-35 yards and they are quite often tame and hopeful efforts when Salzburg are frustrated against a low-block defence. But in these instances, he would be better off not pulling the trigger and recycling the ball instead to try to draw out the opposition.

Based on his inefficient numbers, it’s not a surprise he has been in and out of the team. As a midfielder Bajcetic’s decision making needs to improve.

Future at Liverpool?

It’s difficult to predict where Bajcetic stands at the moment. At 20 years old, he is still quite a raw midfielder. He’s full of energy and has good technical qualities but he needs to be better in the decisive moments.

If he cannot master those elements in the Austrian Bundesliga, there is no way he could do that in the Premier League. Right now, the Spanish U21 midfielder is very far away from having a place in the Liverpool first team squad.

But Slot does like technical players who have a good passing range and who are capable of winning a high volume of duels. Time is also on Bajcetic’s side, if he can work on making his decisions better there is definitely an intriguing prospect in him.

It’s also important to note he has been thrust into a very turbulent Salzburg side, who struggled massively under Lijnders.

Perhaps the new coaching change will give him more stability and in turn in a better system Bajcetic will also be able to stand-out more and he’ll make less mistakes, too.