Bundesliga
Clear the way for Rose: RB Leipzig separates from Tedesco
Bundesliga club RB Leipzig has parted ways with coach Domenico Tedesco. photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
Domenico Tedesco has to leave Leipzig just 109 days after winning the cup. The coach is the weakest link. However, the problems of the retort club lie deeper.
Domenico Tedesco said goodbye to each player with a handshake. But even before the end after the embarrassing 1: 4 in the Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk, the coach’s time at RB Leipzig had expired.
The club announced the split just 109 days after winning the DFB-Pokal, selling it as “the result of an in-depth analysis” following the Donetsk debacle. Managing director Oliver Mintzlaff emphasized that the decision “was very difficult for us”.
Mintzlaff wants “a new impetus”
The club wants to present a successor in the near future, but the solution has long been an open secret. Marco Rose is from Leipzig, without a contract, ready and deep in the RB cosmos anyway. The 45-year-old would be the “new impetus” Mintzlaff wanted – for the team and the fans. As a Leipziger, he would probably have more credit than Tedesco, who ultimately did not earn anything by winning the cup, the semi-finals in the Europa League and the best second half of the Bundesliga season. Financially, the rejected contract extension in the summer is also bitter for Tedesco.
What makes it interesting at Rose ad hoc is the start of the contract. After all, the team, which is currently in a bad way, meets Dortmund (Rose’s Ex-Club I) on Saturday, then has to go to Real Madrid and finally to Mönchengladbach (Rose’s Ex-Club II). Either you go all in or look for an interim solution until the international break that begins after the Gladbach game. Then Rose would start with a home game against Bochum – and might have solved a few problems.
Because the unusually high wear and tear of two coaches in less than a year for Leipzig conditions shows that troubleshooting in the club has to go deeper. If you like, Tedesco’s release is the temporary low point of a development that began with the departure of architect Ralf Rangnick in the summer of 2019. For a certain time and thanks to the highly talented trainer Julian Nagelsmann, the club management was able to conceal the damage caused. With the cup victory, they imagined themselves as the upcoming title collectors and Bayern hunters.
Eberl and Rose know each other from Gladbach times
But even the ridiculous search for a new sports director revealed a massive loss of substance on various levels. Mintzlaff has been looking for a successor to Markus Krösche for more than a year now, and time and again he messed up deadlines he had set himself. After all, the club boss is now about to sign Max Eberl as head of sports. Which is certainly pleasant, as he already knows the designated new coach Rose from Gladbach times.
But Rose and Eberl also have to get along with the squad that has been built for them by the sporting management in the past transfer window. The team impresses with highly talented players such as Christopher Nkunku, Dani Olmo and Josko Gvardiol. But the squad lacks balance. Instead of strengthening the weakened right-back or defensive midfield, a fifth striker was brought in in Timo Werner in the summer. A transfer that scored points with the fans, but has so far proved to be of little use in sporting terms.
The same applies to the signing of David Raum. So far, the national player has not even shown that he is an upgrade to Angeliño, who was loaned to Hoffenheim in return. Xaver Schlager was only allowed to play from the start in the cup against fourth division Ottensen and then made his first serious competitive appearance in the starting XI against Donetsk of all places. The mood of the Austrian was corresponding: “It’s like buying a new Ferrari and driving 100 against the wall.”
The Leipzig team recently looked more like the prototype of an electric car. A lot of potential, a lot of future, a lot of imagination, but still a long way from the great art of engineering. The new coach is now not only responsible for playing a functioning football. Instead, he has to give the team an identity again, as Rangnick and later Nagelsmann did. It could be a mammoth task.