Bundesliga: Nagelsmann's hard work just beginning as Hoffenheim prepare for Champions League
Mootaz Chehade looks at the young manager who has transformed Bundesliga no-hopers into a top four club
It was February 2016 when Hoffenheim’s board decided it was finally time for a change.
The 17th-placed Bundesliga team were ready to risk it all with 28-year-old youth coach Julian Nagelsmann.
Fifteen months later – and better than most fairytales would end – the young man has secured Champions League football.
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The German coach’s different approach to football and his odd 5-1-2-2 formation that would turn into a 3-1-6 against deep blocks were indeed key in that historic achievement.
His ability to get the best out of players like Kramaric and Rudy proved crucial. Kramaric, who had been struggling with his finishing having just scored seven goals in his last two League seasons combined, bagged 15 goals in the current campaign from a deeper role.
He had been Leicester City’s record signing before being sent out on loan to Germany where he has made a name for himself.
Nagelsmann has succeeded in each and every test that has come his way but his ability to cope without key players like Rudy and Süle who will both be heading to Bayern Munich in the summer will be another matter.
The ability to stay at this level in Germany next season – especially with European football kicking in – is one more test the he will have to overcome and if he does surely the top clubs in Europe will start coming in for him.
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He rather modestly claimed: “Thirty per cent of coaching is tactics, the other 70% is social competence” but ‘Baby Mourinho’ as he is known has certainly injected a mental fortitude into what seemingly was a team of journeymen and young prodigies.
Spark
Apart from his ability to bring in a spirit of togetherness, Nagelsmann has looked to embed more fire and energy into a squad that was low on spark last season, bringing in players like Hertha’s Sandro Wagner, Köln’s Kevin Vogt and Benjamin Hübner from Ingolstadt.
But before he can cement his name as a world class manager, he will have to start rebuilding the squad after Süle & Rudy leave.
Getting into the top four just might have been the easy bit – the hard work starts here.