Bundesliga coaches and the need for fresh faces

This summer, once again, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, Hertha Berlin, Schalke and Augsburg have all been looking for new head coaches at some point. Some of these vacancies have been filled, others remain open, but there is a common factor linking all of the coaches announced so far: we have seen them in the Bundesliga before.

With sporting directors playing a key role in the hiring of head coaches, Bundesliga appointments follow a pattern. Once a league famous for promoting youth coaches to the senior team, a Bundesliga club has not promoted a coach from within since Florian Kohfeldt at Werder Bremen in 2017.

That has meant coaches appointed in the Bundesliga currently tend to have to speak German, have experience as a head coach of a senior team, and be out of contract (with last season the exception). Recent appointments also suggest that experience of working at a Red Bull club has been advantageous.

It is a situation that can lead to staleness in coaching ideas. A lack of diversity means you normally get the same ideas, and it becomes easier for these tactical approaches to get canceled out.

Same old story

Former Augsburg head coach Markus Weinzierl is the perfect example. Hired from Regensburg in 2012, his tactical approach with Augsburg could be described as typically man-orientated, with a mid-high press that focuses on transitions rather than possession.

After he left Augsburg in 2016 to join Schalke, to challenge for the Champions League, they finished 10th following the same approach. The same was largely true at Stuttgart, where he contributed to their relegation, and at his second stint at Augsburg.

It would be easy to dismiss that as nothing more than the rigidness of one coach, but the coaches who hail from the Red Bull coaching tree show that similar issues persist across a host of clubs. Whether at RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg or fellow Austrian side FC Liefering, the tactical approach is similar: dynamic transitions and a high-press. Interestingly enough, since the introduction of Red Bull coaches, more goals have been scored in the Bundesliga.

However, many of those coaches have been short on success. Half of the 10 permanent head coaches that left their club during last season came from a Red Bull background: Jesse Marsch (RB Leipzig), Frank Kramer (Arminia Bielefeld), Sebastian Hoeness (Hoffenheim), Adi Hütter (Gladbach) and Marco Rose (Dortmund). Three of those also held prior Bundesliga head coaching positions at a different team.

The right fit?

Oliver Glasner is perhaps the exception to the rule. The Austrian, who started at RB Salzburg and FC Liefering, guided Wolfsburg to a top-four spot and most recently won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt. It should be noted, however, that Glasner developed a stronger in-possession game with more disciplined movement within a formation.

When hiring the same old coaches, clubs appear not to answer important questions. Does the club's style of play match the incoming coach's approach? Is our current group of players capable of playing the way the incoming coach wants? The safety of appointing a familiar name rather than addressing these questions often leads to coaches not being the right fit for clubs — see Mark Van Bommel at Wolfsburg.

Hope comes in the form of two men from Switzerland. Gerardo Seoane, appointed head coach of Leverkusen last year, and Urs Fischer, who has been in charge of Union Berlin since 2018, have delivered new ideas that have brought success to their clubs and caused the rest of the Bundesliga to take notice. Although a former Bundesliga coach, Domenico Tedesco getting the RB Leipzig job was a sign of the Bundesliga side thinking outside of their Red Bull world.

Bucking the trend seems to be the best way to go in the Bundesliga at the moment, but it's also what needs to happen to raise the quality of German football again.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding