The short-term intermezzo of Zsolt Löw begins with a cup game as a trainer of RB Leipzig. How the DFB Cup semi-final should help to bring RB back to the Champions League, he said in advance. Also where he sees deficits in the game of predecessor Marco Rose. And what makes his new job with the friendship with the ex-RBL coach.
“Nobody tied me up and pulled me here,” said Zsolt Löw. The decision to RB Leipzig to take over the head coaching role until the end of the seasonhe still had to fall “surprisingly and out of the blue on Saturday evening”. At the party for the 50th birthday of a friend (“My wife has blocked the appointment for eight weeks”), the Hungarian says on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) at the matchday press conference, he has the call from RB sports director Marcel Schäfer reached. “The birthday was in the ass,” laughs Löw. “One call after the other came for four hours.”
Löw: “I know what it means”
The 45-year-old’s task is clearly defined: Löw should lead the sixth of the Bundesliga back to Champions League course in the remaining seven league games. This mission does not begin in the Bundesliga, but in the DFB Cup and already on Wednesday evening (April 2, 2025, 8:45 p.m. in the Audio Livestream and Spio ticker) in the semi -finals at VfB Stuttgart.
Löw wants to get momentum with the hoped -for final. And even more: “I have won many titles, many trophies. I know what it means,” reports the former assistant coach of Thomas Tuchel, Ralph Hasenhüttl, Ralf Rangnick or Adi Hütter. “That is forever.” And he told the team in his first speech: “It is a unique chance to win a title with two wins.”
Löw’s appeal to the cooperation
“That was my first approach,” reports Löw about his ideas to transform the currently tumbling “bulls” into a successful slaughterhouse. “My next approach was: This is a mission for seven weeks. We have to create a good cooperation.” And despite the limited time, the former Cottbus defensive specialist wants to achieve this, especially in one -on -one discussions: “The head plays a big role. We have to be open – the team for my ideas, I for their needs.”
“We have to create a positive mood. I have to take pressure away from the team,” Löw describes his philosophy. Then, the long-time assistant coach, who takes over his first chief post on the Cottaweg, believes that “ten to 20 percent management increase” for every player. The Leipziger, who celebrated 16 victories in 39 games this season and lost 14 times this season, are Löw’s opinion “good enough for the Champions League, even if we have injured.”
Löw and Rose are friends
Löw knows his way around in the trade fair city, from 2015 to 2018 he was a co-trainer here, managing the 2nd Bundesliga to the Champions League with Rangnick and Hasenhüttl. “RB Leipzig means a lot to me. From 2012 to 2018 I was part of the Red Bull family.” From this time he also knows his Predecessor Marco Rose. And not only for that: “We played football together in Mainz, we were together in Salzburg. We are good friends.”
Zsolt Löw and Marco Rose have known and appreciate themselves for years.
A friendship that Löw believes that she also withstands the current stress (“Nobody wanted it so that I would take over”). And yet seven-week interim coach Löw feel that he can give the team an impulse. One that the rose could no longer give from the perspective of the RB managers. An impulse that is based on the previous style of play, on the so-called “red bull football”. “I think RB’s decision to get me back has to do with the fact that I helped develop the RB philosophy in my time,” reports Löw.
Löw zu Rose: “There are a thousand reasons”
“This further development has stopped a bit recently,” says Löw, without addressing his predecessor Rose directly. There have already been impulses for a new footballing of the striking RB football in personal conversations by Red Bull football boss Jürgen Klopp and his previous assistant Löw with Rose. “We offered support,” said Löw. And: “There are a thousand reasons why it didn’t work.”
Löw and Hoeneß: Together in Hoffenheim and Leipzig
With the experience of his many assistant stations, Leipzig returnees Löw now wants to initiate the trend reversal at RB. The beginning should be made at VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday. Stuttgart is currently in the crisis similar to Leipzig. The vice champion of the past year is currently only Bundesliga elder. The Swabians have been waiting for a win in the league for six games.
Nevertheless, the Leipzig coach, who once played together with VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß together in Hoffenheim and who also knows the 42-year-old from his time as a young coach at RB Leipzig: “This is a very good team. You have developed a very good stability under Basti.”
Löw-Mision ends in May-sure
For Löw, his seven-week mission in Leipzig is to start a win on Wednesday-and then end with the third DFB Cup trophy and the new Champions League qualification. Löw is already certain that the time ends in Leipzig. Because although nobody “pulled up and pulled” here, he is already looking forward to his return to the side of Jürgen Klopp in the global cosmos of the RB empire. “I have the feeling that I can still help a lot there.”
Dirk Hofmeister
