Mainz as a Bayern stumbling block?
Thomas Tuchel is fighting against his old successes
4/21/2023 12:06 p.m
An emotional return to his old homeland awaits Thomas Tuchel on the 29th match day of the Bundesliga. His work at FSV Mainz 05 continues to be successful today. Coach Bo Svensson raves about the Bayern Munich coach.
Of course, the pictures of Thomas Tuchel’s freak out are being dug out again these days. That scene nine years ago in which he folded a certain Shawn Parker so mercilessly in training that the outburst of anger on social media still causes amusement today. It’s one of the moments that are particularly memorable from Tuchel’s time at FSV Mainz 05.
At Bruchweg, however, they remember so much more just before returning as Bayern coach, because in a way, Tuchel paved the way for the current success in Mainz. “He opened my eyes to how football is trained, how to pack and address a group,” said today’s coach Bo Svensson before the first duel with his “teacher”. He played under Tuchel for five years and without him, the Dane emphasized, he wouldn’t be where he is today.
“One of the three best coaches in the world”
If Tuchel on Saturday (3.30 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker at ntv.de) So if you meet many old companions in Bayern dress and a bunch of problems in your luggage, it will of course be “special”, said Svensson. Ironically, the former protégé could continue to annoy Tuchel in the championship fight, Mainz, unbeaten for nine games and right in the middle of the fight for Europe, sense their chance. Especially since Bayern are “not so solid and well-rehearsed”, emphasized FSV sports director Martin Schmidt.
Even as coach of Borussia Dortmund, Tuchel had returned to Mainz twice. This time, too, a number of familiar faces are waiting, such as that of Christian Heidel. The described Tuchel, who, like Jürgen Klopp, came from the Mainz coaching school and was promoted as a freshly crowned A youth champion in 2009, as “one of the three best coaches in the world”. Tuchel is “an absolute perfectionist and makes demands on himself that he sometimes cannot meet himself,” said the sports director at Sky. But when he hears that the 2021 world coach is a complicated guy, he can only give the same answer: “Does anyone think Pep Guardiola isn’t a complicated guy?”
“Sometimes loud” but “never boring”
The separation in the summer of 2014 was by no means silent. Tuchel wanted to stop early, but Heidel insisted on the fulfillment of the contract and refused a termination – a sabbatical year followed. Even Svensson admitted that things got “loud” between him and Tuchel, “but never boring”. Nothing seems to have stuck – on the contrary. Working with Tuchel is one reason “why I went the coaching route,” said Svensson. He took things with him from the time “to find my identity and what I want to stand for. There are always people who were decisive and formative, Thomas is one of them.”
And so the return is “a special story” for all sides, said Schmidt, who coached the U23s during Tuchel’s tenure and once described him as a personal “beat setter”. Tuchel is coming “to his old homeland, where he grew up. There’s a lot of emotion in it.” Despite all the enthusiasm, gifts for ailing Bavarians are not.