CAN NAGELSMANN OUTSMART SPURS’ MOURINHO?
Twice a winner in this competition, with Porto and Internazionale, Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho will have to be wide awake in his battle of wits with fresh-faced RB Leipzig counterpart Julian Nagelsmann, who at 32, is the youngest head coach in the Bundesliga.
Currently in his first season at the controls of the Roten Bullen, Nagelsmann is universally regarded as one of the best young coaches on the European circuit. His side went into the winter break in pole position in the Bundesliga and were top of their Champions League group this autumn, losing just once.
Nagelsmann, who cut his Champions League coaching teeth with Hoffenheim in 201718, is what’s best described as a “footballing chess master”. His game plans are flexible, innovative and brave, he has a flair for neutralising opposition strengths, and more often than not he makes the right tactical adjustments. He does not allow bad situations to fester.
His teams are never pedestrian or bland and there is always something interesting cooking in the pot, be it a wrinkle to confuse, a ruse to destabilise or a tweak to cut through. He fizzes with bright ideas, mostly related to cunning movement and surprise deployment of players. Any coach facing him has to be constantly alert to the proliferation of weapons in his attacking playbook: the decoy runs, clever overloads, positional switches, adventurous full-back play and imaginative set-pieces.
He is also a realist, noticeably opting not to conduct a root-and-branch revolution on taking over at RB. More than satisfied with the team’s wellestablished identity – their emphasis on high pressing and swift transitions
– his only real change of tack was the widening of their attacking options. He preaches more care in possession, better combination play and far less panic when confronted with heavily entrenched opposition defences.
Star striker Timo Werner has certainly benefitted from Nagelsmann’s words of wisdom. Rather than use Werner at the point of attack, Nagelsmann has encouraged the German international to play much deeper, thus giving him the space to exploit his searing pace. And the change has worked wonders for Werner. Not only has he been scoring left, right and centre, he has been making plenty of chances too. Brutal honesty is another of Nagelsmann’s traits. Individually and collectively he sets the bar high and does not hesitate to tell home truths. Unhappy with his side’s first-half performance in a Bundesliga game this season, his response was scathing, arguing: “If we play like we did in those opening 45 minutes against Bayern and Dortmund there will be absolutely no need to talk about winning a championship. We went into our shell and showed no courage.”
He walks the walk and talks the talk. One day he will be managing in the Premier League. The Tottenham clash gives him the chance to display his wares.
Leipzig went into the winter break in pole position in the Bundesliga and were top of their Champions League group this autumn