Above all, however, the 36-year-old showed a quality that makes a master coach: When his team lost Marcel Halstenberg because of a red card, the coach did not let up a single volt in his support: his power, his energy drove the Leipzig team on on and forward – until the great triumph.
Tedesco makes Nkunku strong
A key to the success of the trainer, who succeeded the hapless Jesse Marsch in December ’21, was his dealings with jewel Christopher Nkunku. He had scored six times in the league before Tedesco signed – after that the Frenchman scored another 14 goals and played a key role in RB being at the top of the second half of the table. Nkunku was successful for Leipzig 35 times in the past season. Tedesco encourages the 24-year-old ex-Paris St. Germain striker to realize his potential more and more. With success. His points balance: 2.07 points per game – a top value.
Tedesco’s qualities came as a bit of a surprise: After his first spell in the Bundesliga as coach of Schalke 04 (points per game: 1.57), he was hired by Spartak Moscow – and thus completely escaped the attention of the German public. Tedesco did not perform particularly well there either, scoring only 1.69 points per game.
Schweinsteiger: “Tedesco always has a solution”
The commitment of the German-Italian in Leipzig was all the more surprising. Although his theoretical knowledge as a coach was well known: in 2015/16 he completed the football coach course together with Julian Nagelsmann and finished as the best in his class with a grade of 1.0.
ARD expert Bastian Schweinsteiger praised the coach for his solutions: “Domenico always thinks about everything, but always has a solution and he also has a very good substitute bench.” “But the players have to do it too”Tedesco replied, “But the boys defended everything, even with a man down we gained more possession.”
Excellent coaching
Which was also due to Tedesco’s tactical change: after Halstenberg was sent off, the coach and his coaching staff took a quick look at the situation, only to bring in two fresh attackers in Nordi Mukiele for Emil Forsberg and Dominik Szoboszlai for Andre Silva. Associated with this was a change in the tactical formation to a 5-1-2-1, with which SC Freiburg had difficulties.