Wednesday, December 8th, 2021
Club boss Mintzlaff under pressure
Minimalist Tedesco is supposed to save RB Leipzig
A few days after the American Jesse Marsch was kicked out, RB Leipzig has a new coach. With Domenico Tedesco, an old friend returns to the Bundesliga. The 36-year-old should lead the ailing club from Saxony back to the top in Germany.
Domenico Tedesco is back in the Bundesliga. According to RTL / ntv.de information, the former Schalke coach will take over the Bundesliga soccer club RB Leipzig. The 36-year-old Tedesco worked for the Russian first division club Spartak Moscow until last summer. Last weekend, Leipzig broke up with previous coach Jesse Marsch after just 14 match days. In the last group game of the Champions League against Manchester City (2-1), the Saxons were looked after by interim coach Achim Beierlorzer.
But already after the game, Leipzig boss Oliver Mintzlaff had indicated that he could present a new coach before the upcoming Bundesliga matchday. “It can happen very quickly, we are in good talks and have the feeling that the coach we are going to sign is a perfect fit for the team,” the 46-year-old explained. Tedesco should train the team before the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Mintzlaff himself had recently come under fire. The American march was considered his dream coach. He had also prevailed against resistance from the team. Overall, she was not convinced of the Red Bull Football School’s product. The former coach of RB Salzburg and New York RB and former assistant coach of Julian Nagelsmann near Leipzig ultimately crashed with his ideas of Red Bull football as a pressing machine, to which Nagelsmann, who had migrated to Bayern, had added new ball possession elements and for him the squad was designed.
Not an ideal starting position
For Mintzlaff, who after the departure of sporting director Markus Krösche to Eintracht Frankfurt, has had to do without sporting expertise as far as possible since last spring, Tedesco’s commitment is of fundamental importance. The squad tattered by Bayern Munich, which in addition to Nagelsmann and his coaching team also secured defender Dayot Upamecano and captain Marcel Sabitzer, as well as Liverpool, was not strengthened sufficiently and in the wrong positions in the summer.
Since Leipzig’s promotion to the Bundesliga in summer 2016, the controversial project of the Austrian marketing giant has qualified for a European competition every season. With only 18 points from 14 games and eleventh place in the league, the new coach does not have an ideal starting position. But in his previous positions he has definitely proven that he can make a lot out of a little.
Tedesco’s coaching career began in the youth departments of the Bundesliga clubs VfB Stuttgart and TSG Hoffenheim. In his short time with the second division club Erzgebirge Aue, he recommended himself for the coaching position at Schalke 04. He took over the Ruhrpott-Klub for the 2017/2018 season and took it to second place in the Bundesliga with minimalist football in the first year. The Royal Blues also managed a deep run in the DFB Cup. They were only eliminated in the semifinals against the eventual title winner Eintracht Frankfurt.
Leipzig hopes for the Nagelsmann effect
But in the second year the still young love between the Ruhrgebietsverein and the coach broke, who after a generous contract extension until 2022 in the summer of 2018 with his team could no longer match the previous year’s successes. After a 7-0 draw against Manchester City and a fall in 14th place in the league, his time at Schalke 04 was over.
The coach, who was born in Rossano, Italy and grew up in Esslingen, followed the dramatic collapse of the traditional club from the safe distance of his new Russian homeland. He was hired there in October 2019 and was the first German coach at Spartak Moscow. His departure as runner-up in the summer of 2021 was due to “family reasons” and was mourned by the supporters of the club.
Tedesco was again and again a candidate for vacant or non-vacant coaching positions in the Bundesliga. This is how his name was brought into play at Hertha BSC, but now it is up to him to build on the success of his former Hoffenheim companion Julian Nagelsmann.