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Thomas Tuchel is a courteous, personable and intelligent coach, part of an elite band of coaches that the best clubs look to when they need a new direction. Just don’t mention Jurgen Klopp.
That’s the advice of Christian Heidel, managing director of FSV Mainz 05, who forged the German club’s promotion from regional leagues to the Bundesliga and who gave Klopp and Tuchel their big opportunities.
Although Tuchel was not Klopp’s immediate successor in Mainz, only one year separated the end of the Liverpool manager’s reign there and the beginning of Tuchel’s rise through the hierarchies of European football.
Tuchel, 47, was more successful in Mainz than Klopp, qualifying for the Europa League by finishing fifth in the Bundesliga and never below 13th. He then followed Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, where he was unable to match his predecessor’s two Bundesliga titles and the German Cup, although he finished second and third and won the German Cup.
Still, the tension between the two was evident when Heidel brought up the subject in the summer of 2012, midway through Tuchel’s term in Mainz.
Although they were performing better than ever, there was a feeling that many fans still longed for the good old days of ‘Kloppo’. It was partly because they had moved to a new stadium in 2011, a superb but somewhat sterile facility called the Opel-Arena, a far cry from the atmospheric but ramshackle city center Bruchwegstadion, where Klopp’s glory days had unfolded.
It was also because no one could match Klopp’s charisma and energy, his unique bond with the fans and his popularity after 18 years as a player and coach in Mainz.
Although the new stadium was officially sold and attendance was estimated at 34,000, there were thousands of empty seats. Season ticket holders chose their parties; the feeling of a city and a club united as one was not exactly the same.
In trying to explain this, Heidel asked Tuchel what he thought his role at the club was. The coach replied that the coach’s sole responsibility should be to develop the team, win games and offer the fans good value for money. Heidel, himself a sociable figure, wanted to communicate to Tuchel that there could be something more in Mainz.
“It said that we as a club had to get a little more involved with our audience,” Heidel recalled. Then a sentence escaped me and I said: “When Kloppo was here…” At that, Thomas let out a tear and yelled at me. What was I thinking? The conversation ended at that point. And I thought, “Whoops! Obviously I have hit a delicate point ”. I was really upset. That’s where the rivalry with Klopp comes from.
Heidel tells the story in the biography of new Chelsea manager Tuchel, recently published by Daniel Meuren and Tobias Schachter, which will soon be published in English. Meuren, who covered Mainz as a journalist under Klopp and Tuchel, entered the project as a skeptic, having experienced Tuchel’s abrupt manner compared to the avuncular Klopp, but came out with a deeper appreciation of Tuchel’s gifts.
“Tuchel’s genius is the details,” Meuren says. ‘He is the coach of coaches. In each session, he focuses 105% on what the players do ”.
Training with tiny balls, like Chelsea did on Friday, is pure Tuchel. It will mix the bib colors on all five per side, making it harder for players to remember who is on their team, forcing their brain to work harder. Repetition is the enemy. ‘Provocation’ is his motto, in the sense that he wants to constantly challenge his players to solve problems. His obsession with detail can make him look like an automaton, but Meuren insists that’s not the whole picture.
‘He has learned. He has talked about how South American players may need a physical touch, to be hugged or even kissed on the cheek. But in principle it will not change. Thomas is Thomas and that’s his strength. ‘
When Meuren met Tuchel recently and told him that he had liked him more since writing about him, Tuchel laughed and was glad that the more you know him, the more you appreciate him.
And time has softened Tuchel. When he exploded in Heidel, he was trying to break through, working in the shadow of Klopp, one of the great personalities.
He now has that success in the German Cup, two French league titles with Paris Saint-Germain, a French Cup and a Champions League final under his belt.
Still, having followed Klopp to the Premier League, he once again invites comparison.
“It is difficult to be as successful as Jurgen, but we will do our best of course,” he said Thursday, when he spoke via Zoom with reporters for an hour. He did it with ingenuity and considerable energy. Even if he can’t match Klopp’s beaming smile and hearty laugh, he’s not a mere technocrat. Klopp’s question caused no problems this time.
“Jurgen is one of the best coaches, one of the most fascinating personalities there is as a coach. Of course, we have a certain history. [but] we don’t know each other as well as everyone thinks. But every time we meet, it’s amazing. He’s a fantastic personality and a super fun guy.
‘People love him, the fans love him, his team loves him and he has the results for it. Let’s try to complicate things a bit. We start now, to close the gap, to take a bit of his points and his reputation, with all due respect and friendship, of course. ‘
Tuchel has had to change from the intense youth he was in Mainz, maturing into a more mundane Euro coach.
He was an even more modest player than Klopp. Tuchel played at the third level at Ulm in Baden-Wurttemberg, southwestern Germany. He was under the influence of Ralf Rangnick, who pioneered the new wave of German tactics, a great influence on Klopp. Tuchel’s break in Mainz came after he had impressed looking after the Augsburg reserve team, where he coached Julian Nagelsmann, current RB Leipzig coach and next German most likely to finish in England, giving him his first scouting jobs.
In 2008, Tuchel was invited to take over the Mainz A Team, the equivalent of the U23 Premier League. He made an impression on young players, although his work ethic and gruff tone did bring a delegation closer to mid-season for ask him to be softer with them. He did, and they ended up reaching the final of the play-off, which decides the winner of the A-team league. Tuchel was a master at persuading young players to buy a shared vision. On a preseason trip to Austria, the team went mountain biking to an alpine summit. He gathered them together and solemnly buried a Mainz insignia in the ground.
“This is our treasure,” he told them. “When we win a trophy this season, we will dig it up again!”
When the team qualified for the final, Tuchel decided he needed the badge to support his team’s talk. For the sake of authenticity, he drove four hours to Austria, scaling the mountain and retrieving the original they had buried. He did it in secret and then, as the team waited to leave the locker room, he introduced it.
‘This is our treasure!’ he told the team, recounting his trip to Austria. ‘We keep our promise. We gave you the badge back. Now go and complete our dream by winning the title! ‘
It had the desired effect. Mainz beat Borussia Dortmund in a play-off final in front of 10,000 fans at their former Bruchwegstadion. Among the spectators was Klopp, by then in charge of the Dortmund senior team.
Sitting next to his old friend Heidel, Klopp observed: ‘Today the best team beat the team with 10 best players (Andre Schurrle, a future World Cup winner with Germany, was the only Mainz player that Klopp had rated better than their youngsters from Dortmund). ‘
“His words were a great compliment to Tuchel,” said Heidel, who had already seen the potential in his academy manager. Hoffenheim tried to steal him mid-season and double his salary, but Heidel wrote a passionate email to Tuchel, telling him to stay and one day become a first-team coach.
It came just before the 2009-10 season, when Tuchel was offered the opportunity to become the youngest coach in the Bundesliga at 36.
“Thomas asked for a couple of weeks to think about it,” Heidel recalled. ‘I made it clear to him that in the football business that is not possible. Especially as a team promoted five days before the start of the season. I said it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Tuchel finished ninth in his first season and then fifth, qualifying for the Europa League. Players and journalists remember the intensity he always brought.
‘Who is not [intense] At this level? ‘ Tuchel said Thursday. “I came across some of the speeches I gave in the Mainz dressing room a few days ago. I was laughing out loud, a little surprised. “Did I say this? Woohoo! Did I dare to say this?
‘In the end, it was authentic, it was me right now and this is who I am. I can only be myself. Anything else will feel like “Oh, he’s hiding something” or “he wants to be funny but he’s not in the mood today” or “he wants to pretend to be angry but he’s not really angry. You feel it. In the end, of course, it was intense [at Mainz].
The question is whether the man who got into a fight in Dortmund with its CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and head scout Sven Mislintat, and later with his sporting director Leonardo at PSG, is ready for the political minefield that awaits him in Chelsea. .
“I have changed,” he said. You can’t stay the same boy. It would be terrible. Now I’m 47. I don’t want to be the same kid I was at 35. I hope I learn every day and of course each player should be treated differently. Neymar needs a special bond, a special treatment, but so does Thiago Silva, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Billy Gilmour too.
‘Some need a hug, others need you to push them hard and in the end I think you can be honest, give your opinion and stay in the locker room. This is not a one-way street. I can also handle truth and opinion and I can handle honest comments. I’m sure I developed. ‘
At that, he paused, reflected, and added, ‘Let’s see what you say about me after a while.’
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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