Marco Rose spent ten years at Mainz 05, and after 200 competitive games and the start of his coaching career at Bruchweg, he makes no secret of his connection to the club. That also explains why he saw the farewell video of Bo Svensson, his former teammate, during the week. The 44-year-old was close to tears when he resigned as Mainz coach after almost three years: “It was a great sport,” said Rose at the press conference before his return to Mainz, where he played in the game with his new employer RB Leipzig on Saturday the Svensson era was a guest.
That the Leipzig head coach at the press conference after Having to say “congratulations to Mainz 05” after the game is difficult to explain other than the illogicality of football. Mainz had been without a win in the Bundesliga for 14 games across the season and had no chance at all when they lost the cup at Hertha BSC. But on Saturday afternoon, less than 48 hours after Svensson’s resignation, the team suddenly performed as it did in the best phases under him – and deservedly defeated European Cup participants RB Leipzig 2-0 (0-0).
“The victory is for the club, the players, the staff, but above all for Bo Svensson,” said a selfless Jan Siewert afterwards, who of course knew that this victory was not entirely unfavorable for Jan Siewert either. The 41-year-old, who is normally responsible for the 05er U23s, is not only Svensson’s successor, but was also his predecessor. Because those in charge wanted to spare their new head coach an away game at Bayern for his debut in January 2021, Siewert stepped in. He won the first half in the Munich Arena 2-0, lost the second 0-5 and then handed over to Svensson, who led Mainz to stay in the league in a sensational second half of the season – including, after an initial defeat, with a 3: 2 win against Leipzig.
A promotion of Siewert to head coach would fit the Mainz model perfectly
This time Siewert is likely to stay longer. There are many indications that he will still be the coach of the Mainz professional team next Saturday at the basement duel in Darmstadt. And even a long-term job seems increasingly realistic: “Today he sent the best application letter he could send,” said sports director Martin Schmidt after the home win against Leipzig. Siewert has been in Mainz since the summer of 2020, first he was head coach of the NLZ and last season he took over the second team – a promotion seems likely because it would fit perfectly into the Mainz model. Since the player Jürgen Klopp took over as coach in February 2001, Mainz have regularly renewed themselves. The coaches Thomas Tuchel, Sandro Schwarz, Martin Schmidt and Bo Svensson had already served the club in the substructure before they became bosses.
It is therefore not really surprising that Siewert, especially given the very short preparation time, chose a tactic against Leipzig that could have come from his predecessor’s still-to-be-written textbook on the subject of relegation battles. At the same time, the success of this approach is of course a bit unfair, because the question inevitably arises as to whether Svensson wouldn’t have managed to win against RB and then everything would have turned out well.
Svensson would certainly have told the team to stand deep, close the center, lead the duels passionately and defend courageously at the right moments. After the final whistle, Siewert made no secret of the fact that the team had “very clear processes and principles” in “many things” and that he didn’t have to make any major changes to them. However, which brings us to the illogicality of football, it sometimes seems important that it is a new boss who says the same things in the dressing room as the old one. And that’s why Svensson probably wouldn’t have won this game after all. The South Korean Lee then headed a counterattack from Karim Onisiwo’s cross to make it 1-0. Four minutes later, the Austrian also set up Leandro Barreiro to make it 2-0 (80′).
Stable at the back, determined at the front and with few chances of success: As a result, the Mainz players haven’t implemented Svensson’s game idea for a long time. There were also decent home games against Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich this season, but even on good days the 05ers lost 0:3 and 1:3 this season. At least until Jan Siewert came along.
The Mainz coach was asked after the game how he managed to get into the minds of the players. His answer was: “I have no idea.”