Changing fortunes

Everybody said: “You can’t do that. The lights are turning off there.” 

They were talking about an offer I had to take my first head-coach job, at the age of 31. It was with FC Erzgebirge Aue, who were last in the 2. Bundesliga table in March 2017. With 11 games to play, everyone thought they would go down, for sure. 

But I wanted to meet with them. I think you should always try to speak to the people concerned, as a matter of respect. And it’s not every day you get an offer from a professional club in the second league.

So I went to Aue and made a presentation on how I saw the team. Of course, they knew that there were a lot of weaknesses, because otherwise they would not be last in the table, having conceded a lot of goals.

But I also looked at what the players’ strengths can be. The president said: “Okay, we want you to be the coach for these 11 games.” He also said they would put in my contract that I could rebuild the team in the third league. They didn’t believe much that we would stay up – for them, hope of survival was already gone.

I started on a Tuesday and on Friday was the first game, against Karlsruher. We won 1-0 with a lot of heart and fight. From there, it started.

"i was very self-confident and i wanted the job. i told them we could qualify for the champions league"

When I came in, the team had four wins from 23 games. In the last 11 games, we won six, drew two and lost only three to stay in the league. It was unbelievable.

We had a good atmosphere after this run of results and a good transfer window, so I was happy to stay and prepare for the next season. Then I got an offer from Schalke.

I felt extremely comfortable at Aue, and was very grateful to the club for the opportunity to coach in the second league. I didn’t take that for granted, but it was clear to me that I had to try with Schalke. It was a great opportunity at a club that I really love.

Schalke sporting director Christian Heidel gave me a call and explained the situation. They were aiming for the Champions League, but they had just finished 10th in the Bundesliga.

Schalke is a big club working with big budgets, but when you don’t achieve the Champions League you can struggle financially. They were really open with me and explained that they couldn’t do big efforts in the transfer market. 

I was asked: “What is the potential that you see with this team?” I was very self-confident after keeping Aue up, and I wanted the job. I told them: “It’s not easy, but we have the chance to qualify for the Champions League.” Of course, I had analysed Schalke games and saw things that I maybe could bring to the team structure, in possession. Some principles where I could see: “Okay, we can improve.”

"during the press, the wing-backs can always be more brave"

Even so, to qualify for the Champions League is really, really tough in the Bundesliga, especially at that time. You never know for sure, but I was convinced that we could do better than 10th place, and would give it everything I had.

The season before, Schalke had played with four at the back. I could see that some of the goals they conceded could be avoided by playing with three, just because you have one more central defender during crossing situations. 

Also, if you play with five, during the press the wing-backs can always be more brave by defending forward, aggressively. And the central defenders, of course, because once one guy is gone, you always have at least three, sometimes even four at the back who can save you.

We had good central defenders. Benedikt Höwedes went to Juventus that summer, but we also had Matija Nastasic, Naldo and Thilo Kehrer, who later went to Paris Saint-Germain. Benjamin Stambouli could also play this position. 

So it was clear that this was the first thing I would do to change the system. To be aggressive when we are out of possession and to focus on counter-pressing, because we had good elements in the team who could create. 

Sometimes you don’t need that much if you are strong defensively. If you can guarantee that you don’t concede two or three goals per match – zero or a maximum of one – the possibility to win games is not that low. So we focused on that, due to the team that we had and the strengths that we saw.

"the 4-4 had been incredible, but this 2-0 win was very satisfying"

That was the idea, but there was a famous game in November of my first season with Schalke, where we conceded four after 25 minutes! It was the Revierderby, a huge game at Schalke’s big rivals, Borussia Dortmund. Incredibly, in the second half we fought back to draw 4-4, with a 94th-minute equaliser from Naldo.

It was a famous match, and a game I will remember in years to come. Everybody speaks about it, which of course I understand. But only a few months later there was the home game against Dortmund, and for me it showed how we had progressed in that time.

Going into the game, we were second only to Bayern, and a point ahead of Dortmund. In our previous game we had lost to a late goal at Hamburg, which ended a run of six consecutive wins. But in this Revierderby at home, we were dominant and won 2-0.

I had the feeling in that game that there was no doubt who would win from the very beginning. The 4-4 had been incredible, but this 2-0 win was very satisfying.

We finished the season as runners-up, eight points clear of the other teams fighting for a Champions League place. Playing in the Champions League was a big target for many of the players. We had a team with young players and not everybody had played Champions League before.

So the second year was not easy, because we had the feeling that the Bundesliga, for some of the players, was not as important as it had been the year before.

"I had a strong emotional connection with the team and the fans"

I always tried to explain that our bread and butter was the Bundesliga. We would always be judged on our Bundesliga results. There, we lost five in a row at the beginning of the next season, so we started very negatively. 

Neither the club nor the players were in the best shape, psychologically. It was tough, but that autumn we qualified from our Champions League group to reach the last 16. That was a good achievement, but we were so busy with the Bundesliga that we could not enjoy this result as much as we probably deserved.

In the last 16, we played Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. We were close to winning the first leg at home. After 85 minutes we were winning 2-1, but we conceded two goals right at the end. You could see that Manchester City were better, but with all the weapons that we had at that time, we had been able to compete.

During the two weeks before we played the second game in Manchester, the team lost more games in the Bundesliga, so we lost even more self-confidence. We were in a really bad period when we went to Manchester.

For the first 35 minutes it was not bad, because it was still 0-0. Then we conceded three goals before half-time, and the team was gone. Two days later, I was gone myself. The club decided it was time to change manager.

I took some time to digest this, because I had a strong emotional connection with the team and the fans. Even now, if I have time I watch Schalke games, because I just like the club. 

"it had been very difficult being separated from my family through the coronavirus pandemic"

Looking back now, it was a very good experience for me, to grow as a coach. I had big success, incredible moments in the good times, but also experience of bad times. 

In October 2019, the time was right for me to take my next job, with Spartak Moscow. It was similar to Schalke, because the club was 11th when I took over. I knew that Spartak is the biggest club in Russia, with millions of fans. But you have to go there and meet the people, see the city and get a feeling for the club. So when they offered the job, I went to Moscow with my assistant coach, Andreas Hinkel, for three days.

We met Spartak’s president, Mr Fedun, at this huge Lukoil building, where he was vice-president. Mr Fedun told me: “Look, this season now is gone. It’s the second half of the season, so you just have to create stability in the team. But next season we want to compete for the first two places.” In Russia at that time, to qualify for the Champions League group stages, you had to finish in the top two.

It was a good project. When we arrived we had around 30 players, which was too many for the league and Russian Cup. We changed the team completely.

Many players left, and we took some young players from the second team, and even from the Under-19s. In the end, we had around 20 players and the goalkeepers, and created a really good atmosphere.

"It is a club with big ambitions, but with big players also"

I really loved working with this young team, as well as the experienced players we had, like Samuel Gigot – who’s now at Marseille – or Georgi Dzhikiya, the captain and a Russian international.

In the first season, we made the semi finals in the Russian Cup, where we lost 2-1 in St Petersburg. And in the second year, we finished second in the league to qualify for the Champions League. It was fantastic.

But I had made the decision to leave at the end of that season, because it had been very difficult being separated from my family through the coronavirus pandemic. Then, in December 2021, I took over at RB Leipzig.

Again it was similar, because the club was a little bit upset about the results they had been getting and were aiming for the Champions League. Being 11th is not what they expect at RB Leipzig.

For example, at the start of the next season, 2022/23, we had two draws. In the first game, at Stuttgart, we drew 1-1. Then we drew 2-2 with Cologne, playing with 10 versus 11 after a red card for Dominik Szoboszlai in the first half. After two games there was already a bad atmosphere, which gives you an idea of how it works there. It is a club with big ambitions, but with big players also.

In Leipzig we had a different quality of player, and it was fantastic to work there. If you see the team now, they lost some players, but then they can bring in players like Xavi Simons and Loïs Openda. It’s a really high level.

"the people there would shake my hand, because they respect me. As a coach, but also as a person"

In the remaining 20 Bundesliga games of the 2021/22 season, we went from 11th to fourth place and qualified for the Champions League. And in the German Cup, we made it all the way to the final in Berlin.

That final was a tough one. We were 1-0 behind, and from the 57th minute we played with 10 because of a red card. Christopher Nkunku scored the equaliser in the 75th minute, then we were reduced to nine players in extra-time. Finally, we won on penalties – the first trophy in the club’s history. It was a really good evening in Berlin!

Of course, it’s very nice to win a trophy. For the people outside, these results are important because they look at how many points on average a coach is probably going to bring them in the future. Or how many trophies they could win. 

But for me, keeping Aue up in that first season was also a trophy. And there are other important successes. Like, if I went back to Moscow after my time coaching Spartak, the people there would shake my hand, because they respect me. As a coach, but also as a person. Or, if I speak with a player who I trained four years ago, and he hugs me and says playing for me was the best time he had. These are things that are even more important.