Much like Wolfsberger, LASK were not expected to repeat their heroics from a year ago, having lost both their manager Oliver Glasner and top scorer Joao Victor.
However, the Linzers made a mockery of such predictions - or at least managed to do so before the pandemic-caused break.
Their first half of the campaign was the stuff of dreams - they won all of their league away games and enjoyed a lead at the top of the table, while also having a superb European campaign and making it out of their Europa League group.
They even managed to get past AZ in the first knock-out round and but form imploded as they lost to Manchester United 7:1 on aggregate.
Their season took a brutal turn for the worse during the pandemic break, as they were caught breaking training regulations while contact training was still forbidden and were docked 6 points as punishment.
This erased their lead over Salzburg, with their form after the break being very poor - they started with a winless run and, despite improving a bit later in the campaign, were only able to finish fourth.
The board opted to part ways with manager Valerien Ismael days after the campaign was over. According to reports, internal issues arose and it will likely be months before we can form a full picture of what happened to LASK during the break that caused them to collapse so badly.
