When RB Leipzig appointed Domenico Tedesco in November, the club were in the bottom half of the Bundesliga having apparently lost their way since Julian Nagelsmann’s exit. His arrival changed everything. Leipzig are now into the top four.
At 36, Tedesco is among the more fascinating coaches at the top end of the European game. Born in Italy, he grew up in Germany, a football obsessive known to play Football Manager even while he was leading to Schalke to second spot in the Bundesliga.
He finished top of the class in his DFB coaching exams – ahead of the current Bayern Munich boss Nagelsmann. “He was already coach of Hoffenheim and he did not have that much time to learn for the exams, this is the truth,” offers Tedesco in mitigation.
He is speaking to selected international media, reflecting on his experiences at Schalke, Spartak Moscow and Leipzig. He will reveal how he celebrated Italy’s 2006 World Cup win in Berlin and what he had to change to arrest his team’s slide under Jesse Marsch.
Asked specifically by Sky Sports to explain his philosophy, his answer is unusually pragmatic for this new generation of coaches. “My idea of football is that you have to adapt to the kind of players that you have, the strengths you have inside the squad,” he says.
“At Schalke, we had many physical players, we played a lot of counter-attacks and got second behind Bayern Munich because of a lot of matches where we defended very compact, lots of counter-attacks, corner kicks, free-kicks, goals after free-kicks and corners.
“At Spartak Moscow, I had a completely different team. We had the youngest team in Russia with really good guys who were technically strong on the ball. We had 70 per cent of possession each game. I have to be flexible as a coach, I have to adapt.
“Here, I have a completely different team.”
Tedesco is careful to praise his predecessor and the opportunity that he inherited. “I found here a team that is strong physically but also from the point of view of the mentality – really good guys, really good squad.” But Leipzig had also lost as many as they had won.
The players were struggling to embrace Marsch’s pressing game with one of the key players, Angelino, bemoaning the basketball-style approach. Tedesco turned up to discover a team that was, in his words, longing for possession of the football. He made the change.
“When you come to a new club you have to know the team, you have to speak a lot to the senior players, try to find out what was the problem in the past. We changed the system, we tried to speak a lot with the players, we wanted to play a little bit more with possession.”
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Leipzig still press, a hallmark of their game since they reached the top division under Ralf Rangnick. But the aim has been to bring greater control than before.
“We wanted to press a little different. Sometimes we needed to stay a little bit more calm. At the start of my work here, I realised that the players are hungry to press really high. It is the same way that I like but sometimes it is better to stay calm in some situations.”
The improvement has been dramatic since the brief winter break with Leipzig taking 23 points from their 10 games. “We had three games in December and then we had this short time. I analysed the games and tried to find out what we needed to improve.”
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