Success they say has so many friends, years ago no one would definitely have looked at the Bundesliga and thought of a brilliant manager in Julian Nagelsmann being unearthed.
Also, no one would’ve been able to tell at the early stages of the just concluded COVID-19 elongated season that a manager younger than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would lead a team to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League. Basically, the youngest manager ever to manage a team in the last four of the UEFA Champions League.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s most canny football tacticians, albeit very young. Julian Nagelsmann right from his days at Hoffenheim has been constantly finding innovative new ways to squeeze every last drop out of his players.
You might want to say a younger version of Jose Mourinho – and this is one of the characteristics of the Special One, Jose Mourinho; who Nagelsmann has been nicknamed after. “Mini Mourinho” while he was at Hoffenheim.
Julian Nagelsmann, a defender in his playing days has shown he’s very much his own man, going about his business silently after impressing with Hoffenheim for three and a half seasons and guiding his new team (RB Leipzig) to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the first time in eleven years of the club’s existence.
Julian Nagelsmann’s Rise
The current RB Leipzig boss is, of course, no stranger to the limelight as he attracted considerable attention when appointed as the coach of TSG Hoffenheim when he was just 28 years old.
Nagelsmann as a player played for 1860 Munich‘s youth sides but due to his constant struggle with injuries – knee injury precisely, his football career ended before it started shortly after he had joined Augsburg, aged just 20.
However, his decision not to give up on football having retired at a very young age seems to have paid off immensely. He said,
“At first, I didn’t want anything more to do with football, It was very sad for me that I had to end my career so young.”
The 33-year-old is the youngest permanent manager as far as the German Bundesliga is concerned – and considering his exploits in his first three years as a manager, he’s bound to set more astonishing records in a couple of years.
After his retirement as a player, Nagelsmann studied business administration in university but dropped out after four semesters. (Another Jose Mourinho trait in Nagelsmann). Jose Mourinho dropped out of a business school after just one day.
He bagged his Bachelor’s degree in sports science after which he ventured into the coaching business, returning to his former club 1860 Munich as an assistant to Alexander Schmidt for Munich’s U17 team from 2008 to 2010.
Nagelsmann managed different youth teams in the following years and has impressed the management of the club in such a short time. He was promoted to be an assistant manager during Hoffenheim’s 2012–13 season, and up until 11 February 2016, was coaching the club’s U19 team.
Unlike other managers, “Mini Mourinho” has been winning titles as a baby manager. He led Hoffenheim’s U19 team to win the 2013–14 Under 19 Bundesliga title. His stint with Hoffeinheim’s cadre teams served as an open-sesame which was well studied by the Hoffenheim hierarchy. This made him become the anointed successor to the then Hoffenheim manager (Huub Stevens).
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And in the wake of Stevens’ resignation as the head coach of Hoffenheim due to health complications, Nagelsmann’s appointment came earlier than expected. He was brought forward by the management a day after Stevens and took over the reign.
As at the time he was appointed, Hoffenheim was 17th on the log, 7 points from the safety of 15th spot, and facing relegation. Thus, his first assignment at Hoffenheim was to ensure that Die Kraichgauer was not relegated to the second tier of the German Bundesliga.
Eventually, Hoffenheim avoided relegation having won 7 of their remaining 14 matches and finished a point above the relegation playoff spot.
As if that wasn’t enough, those who expressed skepticism about his lack of top-flight experience were soon proven wrong as the young German coach mapped out a game model that allowed Hoffenheim to challenge for European qualification in the following season and became consistent with European qualification in subsequent seasons.
Having performed excellently well at the helms, Nagelsmann was on the 9th of June 2017 given a contract extension until 2021 but just a year after his extension, Hoffenheim announced that Nagelsmann would be leaving the club at the end of the 2018–19 season.
The Upgrade To RB Leipzig, The Philosophy & Tactics
Without a doubt, huge speculations have trailed the progress of Julian Nagelsmann in the last two seasons – par for the course, for him to have been regarded that much at Hoffenheim, it’s unsurprising.
The speculation however has been about the next move he would make in order to further his coaching career. Indeed, a move to RB Leipzig is not only an upgrade but also another selling point for the German gaffer.
Right from his first match in charge of Leipzig, it became evident that Nagelsmann would be the next big thing in German football – as well as one of the coaches to keep a tab on.
The Landsberg am Lech-born tactician is one of the most tactically sound managers in Europe as of now. Nagelsmann just like Mourinho is not one manager who favors possession above every other thing but unsurprisingly, there are also shades of Tuchel, among others in Nagelsmann’s playing philosophy and this is evident in his vertical attacking style.
If there’s one thing he acknowledges the erstwhile Borussia Dortmund boss (Thomas Tuchel) for, it’s the big influence he had on him as Augsburg’s reserve-team coach during the 2007/08 season. This was where Tuchel gave Nagelsmann the task of scouting upcoming opponents. Little wonder he’s come this far.
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His tactics are so flexible and quick to adjust against different teams. Against Atlético Madrid in the UCL, he used possessive-based tactics to alter Diego Simeone’s unfaltering defence, while against a resolute side like Bayern Munich, he adjusted his tactics to massive counter and massive defence.
He primarily employs a three-man defence line with his attacking wing-backs going back and forth, but can likewise change to a four-man back-line at whatever point he considers it vital. For the most part, he employs vertical passing and unswerving approach-play to get through opponent’s defenses, while also keeping up a strong defence.
Nagelsmann likes to have a double fulcrum in his midfield, to reuse possession and disintegrate any unfriendly counterattacks. His wing-backs are entrusted with surging forward to give width on the overlap, while also helping out the defensive effort.
In the attack, he typically employs a pair of strikers, one of the strikers is deployed as a target man, while the other drops deep to get the ball and assist in the team’s build-up (mostly what Lacazette does with Arsenal), as well as running the channels to give added width.
For Nagelsmann, he’s not one of those managers who easily get intoxicated with little success, this is one sure thing that has brought him this far and he always wants to get better.
Definitely, the success of this season (especially in the UEFA Champions League) would spur Julian Nagelsmann and RB Leipzig to a redefined 2020/2021 season.
And finally, the individual who named Nagelsmann “Mini Mourinho” must’ve been a wizard. One beautiful thing that most successful managers have in common in their total abstinence from social media.
And just like Mourinho, Nagelsmann has no social media presence but that’s not to say he hasn’t tried some social media accounts.
He can only get better, and it is only a matter of time before the big teams start calling on Nagelsmann’s services.
