The Bosses: Julian Nagelsmann, the managerial prodigy leading RB Leipzig's revolution
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Jenny Hojnacki
3 Yrs Ago
Julian Nagelsmann is one of the most respected managers in top-flight European soccer, and also the youngest. At just 32, the RB Leipzig manager is four years younger than the next-youngest manager in Europe’s top leagues (36-year-old Werder Bremen boss Kohfeldt), and he has accomplished more than many managers twice his age thanks to the use of flexible tactics and cutting-edge training methods.
Youth is definitely the first thing that stands out about Nagelsmann. He was only 28 when he was appointed manager of TSG Hoffenheim in October 2015, making him the youngest permanent manager in Bundesliga history. He was slated to officially take over the following year, but came on early as Huub Stevens resigned in February 2016 due to health reasons. Nagelsmann turns 33 at the end of July and is still the youngest active manager in the league.
The German manager’s youth shows in his coaching style, which uses plenty of new-age technology to improve his players. Nagelsmann is one of the few managers in Europe to employ the “footbonaut” machine, a robotic cage measuring 14 square meters that fires passes to a player standing in the center. He also uses a massive video screen on the training pitch to give players instant video feedback on their drills. The system uses four fixed cameras on the training pitch as well as drones flying overhead to capture video from unique angles.
That comprehensive system allows Nagelsmann to stop a practice at any point to shift the focus to the video board, where he pauses and rewinds the action on the fly to teach a tactic or highlight a particular point of interest in a unique way.
The quick feedback is important for Nagelsmann’s players, who need to learn a variety of formations to keep up with their manager’s flexible tactical mind. Nagelsmann factors a narrow 4-4-2 formation that favors short passes through the middle of the pitch, but he has also lined Leipzig up in a more wide focussed 3-4-3 formation or a defensive minded 3-4-1-2 on more than a handful of occasions this season.
In general, Nagelsmann has an excellent team designed for possession based soccer at RB Leipzig. He uses midfielders Marcel Sabitzer and Christopher Nkunku as attacking pivots to set up his very talented strike partnership of Timo Werner and Patrik Schick. They’ve scored the third most goals in Bundesliga play this season, with only Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich finding the back of the net more often.
Nagelsmann’s teams are excellent defensively as well and they rarely give up a lead. He was a defender during his brief playing career and takes pride in a well organized defense anchored by a pair of hard nosed center backs and two defensive midfielders in front of them to serve as a first line of defense.
This style shows that Nagelsmann admittedly sees coaching legends Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger as influences.
"I like to attack the opponents near their own goal because your own path to the goal is not as long if you get the ball higher up," he told the Bundesliga website. "I like the way Villarreal play and they have a great way of coaching young players. I also like Barcelona and Arsenal as well as the work of Arsene Wenger."
Nagelsmann’s methods clearly work and show that he has nowhere to go but up in terms of coaching success.. He took over at Hoffenheim in the middle of a downtrodden season in 2016 and not only kept them in the top flight, but he led them to the UEFA Champions League for the first time in club history in his first full season in charge.
Now he has his young RB Leipzig squad in the Champions League quarterfinals after stomping Tottenham 4-0 over two legs to make Nagelsmann the youngest manager to win a Champions League knockout round tie.
Continued success with RB Leipzig should keep Nagelsmann’s name in the mix for higher-profile jobs, and while he is still searching for his first piece of silverware as a manager, the young boss has already shown that he has the qualities to develop into a title-winning manager in the years to come.