Leipzig’s season no disaster
© Imago
Jürgen Klopp contradicted the impression that the new coach Ole Werner at RB Leipzig was not the desired candidate. “When his commitment was completely surprising in Bremen, we quickly agreed internally that he was our candidate. He was an absolute over-performer in his previous clubs,” said the Global Head of Soccer at the Red Bull Group in the interview of the “Welt am Sonntag”. For the newcomer to the coaching bench, a transfer fee of 1.5 million euros is due, which can increase to 2 million euros thanks to bonuses.
With Holstein Kiel, Werner narrowly missed the ascent in 2021, which he succeeded with Werder in 2022. In his first Bundesliga season, he led the green-whites to 13th place and in the past two seasons he failed with Werder just because of the qualification for the Conference League. The teams with which he achieved these placements were always worse in the league comparison of the squad values than the place in the table at the end of the season. As a result, Klopp’s assessment can be agreed as a “over -performer”.
The 37-year-old Werner is “one of the youngest coaches of the top 5 leagues,” said Klopp. “So he can still develop. And we want to do that together with him.” Before the commitment of the former Werder coach, ex-man-united coach Erik Ten HAG and COMOS CESC Fàbregas were acted in Leipzig. Ten Hag changes to Leverkusen and Fábregas goes to his second season at Lake Como.
Klopp does not want to be a “sword of Damocles” for RB coaches
It is certain for the former master coach of FC Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund that Werner does not have to fear his shadow. “It is about my role that I have at Red Bull, in which I am not the Damocles sword that floats over our coaches. Free according to the motto: I tell you how it works, and if you don’t understand it, I do it myself. That will never happen.”
The disappointing Bundesliga season of RB Leipzig, in which you started with the most third-value squad and which you ended in seventh place with Werder, does not see Klopp as a disaster. With other clubs such as FC Bayern or Manchester City, there are “sometimes phases in which things are not going,” said Klopp. “And honestly: when I read that the Klopp effect has not yet existed-that’s crazy.” For the first time since the Bundesliga promotion in 2016, the Red Bulls missed the qualification for the European Cup.