IN A LIGA THEIR OWN
German coaches are the big draw for young stars
THE Bundesliga is a magnet for emerging young stars like strikers Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland – because German coaches are the best in the business.
The Premier League might boast Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Liverpool’s own Bundesliga import Jurgen Klopp but Germany has set the new coaching benchmark.
That’s the verdict of former Bayern Munich and Manchester United star Owen Hargreaves who believes the Champions League Final in Lisbon showcased exactly why German coaches are football’s new pioneers in tactics, strategic thinking and recruitment.
Opportunities
Three of the four semi-finalists in the Champions League – Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-germain and RB Leipzig – had German coaches in Hansi Flick, Thomas Tuchel and 33-year-old Julian Nagelsmann.
And while many believe the Bundesliga offers more opportunities for young stars like Jude Bellingham, who recently j oined Borussia Dortmund from Birmingham,
Hargreaves believes the potential stars of the future are heading to Germany not for a platform – but for expert coaching.
“I don’t even think it’s just the Bundesliga and the players who play there that are the attraction.
“If you look at three of the four Champions League semi-finalists they were German and the best one in the world wasn’t even there in Jurgen Klopp which is staggering really,” says BT Sport pundit Hargreaves
“Yes, the Bundesliga is good, they have terrific young players and it’s good for emerging talents like Haaland, Sancho and Bellingham to go there but the coaches are getting better and that is a key attraction.
“You only have to look at Ralph Hasenhuttl, an Austrian who coached RB Leipzig, and what he’s now doing at Southampton. These guys come from the same tree.
“They have the same methodology in the way they work.
“Yes, of course they want to play good football. But every one of those guys wants to press and press high.
“They work in numbers when they press and hunt the ball down.
“Hard work is expected and if you don’t work you’re not in the team.
“Ralph Hasenhuttl, Klopp, Nagelsmann – they don’t have players
in their team who don’t buy in and aren’t prepared to work hard.” Although the emergence of progressive-thinking German coaches was already under way, Hargreaves believes Pep Guardiola’s time at Bayern Munich before he joined Manchester City was also influential.
Attacking
“I think Pep inspired a generation of young coaches in the Bundesliga.
“Everybody wants to get the ball down and play, so you’ll see everyone trying to have a go,” Hargreaves said.
“The top four, all play great football, and all the way further down, everybody is trying to play in an attacking way and it makes for an exciting league where the goals are always flying.”
Until recently, coaching education in Germany operated at a higher standard than in England with German coaches often getting bigger and better opportunities early in their careers. PSG boss Tuchel was 33 when he first managed FC Augsburg’s reserve team before joining Mainz as boss two years later.
Current Spartak Moscow boss Domenico Tedesco was just 31 when he was put in charge of Schalke – and Klopp also made an early start, bossing Mainz at just 33.