Fabian Hürzeler: The Youngest Ever Premier League Manager

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Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Late night bites with friends? Already hard to beat. That first two-hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice-cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop, because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. [MUSIC] Fabian, thank you very much for giving us some of your very important time. I appreciate it. First, how was your summer? Did you watch any of the World Cup? Yeah, it was quite enjoyable, so first of all, a little bit holiday. Of course, the owner keeps you always busy, but then afterwards I joined the World Cup. I wasn't in some games, and at the beginning, of course, I was Germany fan, then Switzerland, the United States, but in the end, they were all out, so in the end, there was four England. You were born in a very cool way. That's why you got a little bit of interest for the United States. When you go there, you're looking, possibly, at new players that you might be able to cycle or tactics, or the way the game goes, or just as a fan. There was just, of course, a fan. Then the first time, normally I always tried to the United States every one time, and normally I tried to hospitate and experience other kind of sports, other cultures, for example, the NBA, the American football, but this time was really the first time that was there and football was like the sport on, so that was quite interesting for me. Then it was really to support my players. We had a few players out there. I wanted to support them, to see their games. I wanted to see them in a different environment, how they are playing for the national teams, and that was just a great experience for me. Can you say you could learn as a coach from watching your players in a different setup with a different coach? Yeah, definitely, because they play first of all different roles with everyone. Then, second of all, they had some game minutes they might not have with us, so, for example, I came to Koi by played a lot of minutes for Belgium. He played a little bit different role also coming into the midfield, and these are all interesting things for me. Yes, in the area, he played more as a 10 for Sweden, so just get a little bit understanding how they are on the pitch in different roles, but also how they defined their roles when they're not playing. So there was, for example, Matsvi, for Pascal Kroes, they not really played a lot of minutes, so how was it for them? I was asking them, how was it for you being like a non-start? How was it for you? Just supporting the team beside the pitch and trying to be good and training as possible. That's just interesting for me to get really an insight. How do players function, or how they push me at the players' function when he's not playing, and these kind of things you might not get when they're here? How important is that sort of things in coaching? Players with a not playing. I think it's so important to get understand for the characters. So for me, it's crucial that when players come in here, and especially it's also part of the reason that you give them an understanding about their roles, what are your roles, give them clarity, because I think the worst thing for players is to play with their hope. So they can handle the honesty, they can handle when you're quite straight towards them, and they can handle it when they know about their roles. That's why I think it's very important to give them clarity about these things, but also for me as a coach, it's so important to understand how it's a character from the player, how it's in your locker room and he's not playing. How is he supporting the team? Is he a great teammate? Is he someone who emphasized really the value from his club regarding to get on this? And these are really important things for me as a coach. Did these things come along when you were a player in your younger days? Because obviously you wanted to coaching incredibly young. I don't think you were a player coach at 2022. So was that because I suppose you were so close to football as a player, but also as a coach, you kind of understood what players were like off the pitch as well as on the pitch? So I honestly I was never craved when I was a player and it didn't play, so I can understand the players. That's a little bit what I always say, speak their language, so I can understand how they feel, but it's so important to emphasize the team. And for more times, honestly, I love to play football. It was not the plan that it turned to being a manager that young, but what I felt was I was always fascinated by by improving players beside me, by helping them to get an under perspective. And of course, getting into a player's coach role of 22 really accelerated this journey. But for me, it was never about like this. This age was more about my curiosity, about learning, speaking to others, listening to others and understanding the game and it definitely helped me more as a coach now to understand the game more from different perspectives. So there was definitely something that brought me self into this role that I didn't expect that early. You said that you didn't like being left out, so you understand how people are when they are left out. But you were also, I mean, I did a bit of research for this. I do occasionally do some work. And I read that you were very hot-headed and got a lot of yellow cards. If you had to reign the energy you got, definitely. There was also one of the first quizzes that I made. We always made quizzes when we tried to introduce new staff members or players. And one of the questions regarding the quiz was like, who collected that many yellow cards and that many red cards, when he was a player's coach. And no one expected me. So everyone was surprised. So I was like, quite, I couldn't really regulate my emotions. I still have to work on this now at this on the side of the line. So it's definitely a point. That was going to be a big question. I have to prove. I'm quite open for that because I know that one side I want to be authentic, that's just me. I want to be there for my team on the other side. It's definitely a thing, emotional, controlled emotions. So I think that's a big part we just brought someone in from from the old blacks and the old blacks have like this red hat and blue hat. That means when you're in the red hat, you can't think rationally. You make decisions that might not be the right decision. So it's really about getting into the blue hat stage where you are like focused on the task, focused on the next action, don't get too much emotional involved into things. So that's definitely a thing where I need to improve and I know that. Yeah, how do you prove that? Because it's all those, it's, it's, exactly, it's inside of me. But what you can do is like reflect yourself. So during a game, I'm in the game. I want to play the game with, with my, with my boys, with my team. And then afterwards, sometimes you think about yourself, you drive home and say, how do they act it? Why did I say that? Do you ever look at things on the social and feel slightly embarrassed by you? Yeah, definitely. I think that you have to be honest about yourself about that. So that's why now it's definitely a thing where I need to work on. And it's, it's not, you know, this won't change overnight. It's like, it's a habit inside of me and that's my, my character also like to, to be passionate and to be on the sideline there for, for my team. But everything has to be like in a good balance and it's definitely something. It must be striking the balance quite difficult because passion and emotion is an important part of football. It's an integral part of football, isn't it? Yeah, and that's also something I just met some, some fans from, from us in Brighton. And when you talk about them, they always say, we love you. We love your passion. And we feel your passion on the sideline. So that's something what I don't want to lose. And I don't want to get in a, in an artificial role. So this will always stay inside of me. But of course, it always has to be like in a, in a good manner. It has to be always in a, in a, in a good way, also regarding the referees, regarding the opponents. I think that's definitely something where we all can improve. Yeah. When did you first think to yourself, I think I'm going to be a good coach. I think I can do this because you did start so young. Was it always within you, do you think? I would say I had it from, from the early beginning. So, so when I look at myself back as a player, I think I didn't have the best talent as a player. But what I had was a good work ethic. What I had was a discipline and had a good understanding of the game. So I always wanted to have the responsibility of leading a team. I always wanted to have the responsibility of, of being close like, like, to the manager and, and being like the manager on, on the pitch. So these things definitely shaped me more, as a coach and a shape me, as a player. So these things helped me. I think these are important character sites of a coach. And until now, I wouldn't say that I'm a good coach. Until now, I say there's so many things I can improve. So many things I can adapt. But overall, of course, it's all about like your identity, how you want to be as a person, but also how you want to be as a coach. And I think that's the main bit. These three things were had as early young players. These three character sites, I just mentioned they're so crucial to be a manager, my perspective. Would you sign Fabian Herzler? As a 20-year-old. For Brian? I think I wasn't good at numbers. So Tony won the sign me because what I definitely not have was like a strength. So I was solid in all things. And I would never regret the way I went as a player. So I was a great privilege with my playing here. Although it didn't take for such a long time. But I was one of the best academies in the world. With Brian Munich. This deep inside created also my DNA and my philosophy. So when you play for Brian Munich, it's always a must win. Yeah, also in the youth. You go to every tournament, to every game, it's a must win. But it's a win in a good style. So winning is not enough. You have to win in a good style, the fall position, the clear DNA, the clear style of play. And this definitely shaped my philosophy. And then afterwards, I was privileged in learning, like, for example, assistant coach for the German Federation, then assistant coach in the second Bundesliga, where you adapt small elements where you learn, for example, what's that piece? Where you learn how important is the defensibility? Where you get to learn what it means to work in a really professional structure. And these things, in this pathway, really shaped me and definitely helped me in our as a coach. You talked there about your philosophy. And it came from perhaps Brian Munich and the early days, because they do attack quite a lot. And playing, entertaining football. Is that a balance to strike as a coach, though? Because you're not at a club like Brian Munich, who are very dominant, obviously, in German football. We're at club Brighton, who've basically punched above their weight brilliantly for a long time. So you talk about you want to play exciting football, but you also play against teams that are big clubs. And so you have to balance it? Of course, so it's always a balance. And deeply inside of me, that's also what I think is very important when you stand in front of a crew. It's like, I always have the belief in my team and in my players that no matter which stadium we go, we want to play our style of football. We want to go there and try to control the game, being proactive, not try to react on certain things. But, and then we come to your question, of course, in certain games you need to adapt to more things. In certain games you need to adjust more. Without losing your principles, without using your style of play, because in the end, that's our identity. And if we are a team, we have like ball possession. If we are a team who wants to control being intense out of possession, playing with a lot of courage, then we can't swap it from big to big. So that's really like that we try to focus on us. That we have this belief, and I have it deeply inside of me, and I really convinced of this way of playing, together with this group here, that we can do is in every state of the world. But, in certain things, you have to adjust. You have to adjust to set peace. You have to adjust to a high-pressing team. You have to adjust to individual quality, what you always face against the top team. So these are definitely elements where you have to adapt to as well. I just want to improve season. You talked about, you wanted to play exciting football, and wanted to entertain. Do you think there's been a little bit of a slip off in, perhaps? Let's talk about the Premier League, and it's become a little bit boring. I think the Premier League always involves, the football always involves. Every trend has a counter trend, and I think there was a trend of set peace, set peace league, getting a set peace league, a lot of set pieces. I also saw the statistics, how many centre backs like have now a lot of the board, we have a lot of board touches also. When I look at my team, I think in certain moments, too many times, like the centre backs had the board. So the idea is always to stick to your identity. Like, what is our style of play? I think that's what's here above. And then, beside that, of course, there's small trends you need to adapt to without losing this identity. I think that's the challenge we are in. There will always be trends in football, and of course, more than football is evolving, it's developing. But that's very important that you adjust to these small trends without losing this identity. And that's the balance you have to. We have to find, and especially in the Premier League, a challenge, because in the end, we all know, like the coaches take a touch with the results. So you need to win games as well. That's why I think it's very important. Don't lose your identity, but adjust to small things regarding set pieces, regarding other tactics that we saw, especially last season in the Premier League. Yeah, the last season in the Premier League was. We also saw it in the World Cup quite a lot. Some teams playing out from the back when, perhaps they've not necessarily got the players to do it. You also need that, don't you, to play that particular way. And what is the advantage of playing that way from the back? I think you need to find a balance. I'll say to my boss, in the end, it's always about scoring goals. So we want to score goals. And if we have to believe, playing out from the back, increases the chance of scoring goals, then we do it. If we have to believe, okay, it has to be a long ball, if we go for the second ball, then we do it. So I think it's a, it's a balance. The Premier League is a very high intense, pressing league. So, therefore, I think it's very important that you adjust to these things. More teams play no man to man. Does it then make sense to always play out from the back? Or is it then, okay, we go long for the second ball? So, in certain moments, you need to find, like, rational decisions that are always like, the purpose is always, okay, how do we score? What is the probability of creating increasing scoring goals? That's the first, but the second part, what I take away from the World Cup, you just spoke about is for me. When you see teams who really have to believe in their identity, when you see teams who really stick to their principles, no matter against who they're playing, long term is successful. So let's take, for example, Spain. Like, they always play the same style. No matter who they face, they're breast intense, they're breast the same pattern. They always play their 4-3-3. They always try to play out from the back. If it's possible, if not, they went long. So, I think they really see what it means and what a great identity, like, can create. And in the end, it's success. And I think it starts also when we speak about Spain in the youth. Every time when I face, there's a, there's a germination of play in the youth. And also, when I was a assistant coach for germination, every time I face, the Spanish national team was always 4-3-3. And that's what they have. It's their belief in the system, it's their beliefs and their principles. And I think this shapes, like, the SSX success nowadays. Why were on this subject of national teams? What's happened to Jeremy? I mean, we can't shout out too much, but we've kind of got finals and semi-finals in recent times, but that's three world cops and they're really struggled. Why? Why do you think-- It's a bad topic, Gary, to speak about this. Sorry. No, but I just wondered if you had a kind of serious, as to why the national team. Because you were always so successful for so long. I tried to make it quite short, so first of all, I think Germany, they're still producing good players. They've always produced good players. So it's not about the development from the neutral players. I think it's more what I just spoke about the belief in their own system. So what made us strong in the past, will make us strong in the future and what makes us strong now in the present. I think we need to find back what is our identity and what are we standing for. And that's why I'm really happy with the appointment from you and Glob because he's that guy who has his belief in we know what we'll get. Everyone knows what we get. And the second thing for me was so important, he can build this connection towards the supporters, towards the fans, towards the country. And I think in football, we speak so much about tactics, about new trends, about these things. But in the end, I always say football is a people's business. It's about building connections. It's about having this connection on the pitch beside the pitch. And not only in the team, but in the team, also like with the supporters. And especially in Germany, I think that's something where we have to rebuild this connection. I have a little bit this feeling now. In Germany, we fall apart, also like regarding we're gonna have a society, we go left, we go right, but we lose like this connection. And that's what we represent, the limit at the moment on the pitch as well. So I think it's very important. Stick to your identity, have this belief in your identity, have this belief, also regarding the quality from the players, and build this connection regarding fans, because I think this will be crucial. Was Jürgen Klopp, one of your kind of people, you looked up to aspirationally as a coach? I think he's definitely one of the coaches who shape me, not that I have like a regular exchange of him, of course. I'm in touch with the film, but not in regular exchange, but what he brought into the football was this big word, even like when I speak to the English people, I know there's one word, "gaydenpressing." And I think it's so crucial in my game as well. Like I want to have this "gaydenpressing" every time and this counterpressing, because you can do it every time. No matter if you're a good day or bad day, that's something what you can control. Your reaction on the pitch, focus on the next task. It's always something what you can do. And on top of that, I think he has this trust and his belief and his identity. He was always like very successful in five teams and he had to do something right and he will do something right with the channel as well. You talked a bit about identity. Do you think England lost there as a little bit of the summer in the World Cup? I wouldn't say that they lost it for the whole tournament. You saw the approach from Thomas, you saw what he was convinced of and you definitely saw it in a lot of faces of the tournament. In the end and then we come back to what I said with Spain. It's like what identity you have on the pitch and when we take the last 30 minutes regarding Argentina and you look at the ball possession, I think in these games you need to have ball positions where that comes back with the identity. You need to have the players who want to build up from the back. You need to have players who have in that moment the courage. I think of course we can speak about changing from back 4 to back 5. It's a decision Thomas made and I understood why he did it but for me it was really about they lost more their style in possession. So I think this will be their approach regarding going to the Euros, bringing everyone on the same page. I think that's not that easy in the English national team. You have the pick for Everton, they played the great season last but they played more like a style of play where they go more direct. Instead of playing off from back, you had a concept of Estonvilla, they always try to play a build up from the back. So they have already there two different kind of styles in their heads so you have to make them aligned and do you get them aligned so fast? It's definitely thing where they have to build on their identity but what I see from outside was they are on the right way. They couldn't do it for 90 minutes but I think the approach was right. In the end it was the semi-final where they're close to winning it. I think what I always said as well is the mindset. They didn't win for such a long period, such a long time. Then you are leading one in against Argentina and then it starts also in the mind. I think we shouldn't underestimate what role plays the head, what role plays the mind. You have something then to lose. You have something to lose, when you're leading you have something to lose. And that I think you get a little bit cramped so I think these two things, shaping the identity, making sure everyone is aligned on one page and still working on the mindset on these things. Then I'm sure that Thomas and the English national team have a great year as well. I would say being proactive, that's the biggest thing for me. Don't react to the opponent trying to press very intense. I don't want to be a team that is very intense and intense. He starts for me not only with the strikers, also with the last line, being very intense shifts, squeeze, is a big thing for me. And then in possession it's like controlling the opponent, having good structure in possession, but also being dynamic, trying to attack the box with a lot of courage. And overall for me it's very important that players, that's also my philosophy, that players understand the game. And that I have players on the pitch who really understand situations and therefore I want to teach them. I want to teach the players that understand this. How do I do it? It's educating them with my principles. So I don't want that I teach them by my patterns, play from A to B, from B to C. For that I think football is too complex and football is getting too complex. I really want to teach them by the principles. And if these principles, they should find solutions on their own. They should find solutions in tight spaces when opponents press high, when opponents stand low. And therefore I really want to educate the players and make sure that the players understand the game. Because it doesn't have me as a coach when I know the game plan, the players have to deliver it. The players have to feel comfortable in this game plan. And that's why I really want to have players who understand the game and that's within my identity and my style of play. What you first came here was that difficult to establish because obviously you were relatively inexperienced and certainly young. Was that a difficulty convincing the players because I know how skeptical some players can be on occasions and be like, "Oh no, where's this young guy coming here?" Telling us what to do. 100%. So of course, when you are standing in front of a group and at age, you can't say that you're not feeling in certain moments a little bit of this insecurity. But what I always have is, nobody has an insecurity doubt or fear. You can't let your idea of football be impacted by this insecurity. That's very important that you always have to believe in yourself, believe in how you want to lead, how you want to play football. So that's why from the beginning, I call my role as the friend of the authority. So, friendly this part is, I had like great personalities that worked from the beginning, like at any well, like at James Milner, Lou Stange, Chase's deal. So, the friendly part was really listening to them because they had so much success in their career. And they didn't know what we needed to do to be successful in the Premier League. They experienced so many games. It must be very important to get those experienced players on board. Exactly. And how you do it, I always say sometimes a coach needs to listen more, then to speak more. So, ask them questions. Make sure, like they feel appreciate, make sure that their opinion counts. And that's like the friendly part. The authority part is what I just mentioned. I am so clear in how I want to play football, what are my principles. I am so clear, like what are my values, what are principles beside the pitch. And you need to be that clear because otherwise you can't be consequence. So, you need to be clear how you want to play, how to lead. And if players don't do it on the pitch beside the pitch, you need to be consequence because players will feel it. And besides this role of friendly authority, I think the biggest thing is like be authentic. Like be authentic. Don't try to play a role. And that's why I think he has a manager. And that's also what's key for me. I was young, I'm still young. I know with age, I think age is not the thing where you gain the respect. I think you really get the respect from the players. If the players really feel like you take care of them, you listen to them, you try to make them better. And you help them in which way to achieve things. It's interesting, isn't it, because obviously with football, a young coach comes in, he's got older players. That seems really unusual, but in any other walk of life, apart from sport, that would happen quite a lot. That someone come in and he's brought in as a manager, and there are older people that are in the room that not as good as that job that he would do. So 100%. I think, like I said, for me being a leader is not about age, or being a leader is not about in which area you are working. I think it's really about, that's what I always try to do as a leader, and that's why I think other businesses might work, because if football we don't speak so much about culture and environment, and me as a leader, my idea and my conviction is like, I don't want to control the players. I want to build like an environment, and I want to build the culture where players can express themselves, and where players get the best out of themselves. And that's for me like what a leader has to do, not to put himself in the spotlight, like to really make the other shine beside him. Not only as a staff member, or like a player, you need to make sure that they are in the right environment in a safe space, but I can express themselves. And that's why I think in other areas, in other businesses, they are also young leaders, because they are like culture and environment, it might be higher value, then it's sometimes football. This episode is brought to you by Guinness. With the Premier League kicking off again, it's time to restart those pre-match rituals. Well, I started my first day of the season, had to have a pint of Guinness in the house, and then taxi picked me up into town into my mate's bar harries, couple of paints of Guinness again, and then walked to the cathedral on the hill. Beautiful, absolutely perfect. My pre-podcast routine is a Guinness. There you go, there it is, you know what, I wasn't drinking alcohol for a year, but I was drinking Guinness zero. Lovely job there. Whether you're at home or the pub, Guinness and Guinness zero are the perfect pre-match paints. Match day is always a lovely day for a Guinness official beer and non-alcoholic beer of the Premier League 18+ for the facts visit drinkaware.co.uk, please drink responsibly. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18+. The perfect lunch combo. That first bite of your favorite sub, followed by ice-cold Pepsi. Add a couple of friends and now that's next level. Suddenly, the laughs get louder, the stories keep flowing, and the food tastes better. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Was it a surprise to you when Brite came in? You don't really well at St. Paul, you got the Permanente ball winning the league and you were doing okay in the Bundesliga, did it surprise you that a Premier League club would come in? Yeah, I think being such a young man in this time and I had one grade or one and a half grade season with St. Paul, we made this promotion, it's not that you expect going into the Premier League, but when I have this phone call, I was like of course surprised, but it was poor Baba, poor Baba and therefore it was really like, immediately this feeling, I didn't want to leave St. Paul, it was a great time there, but it was like this feeling inside of me and I met a person, I always decided regarding my stomach, it was feeling, yeah that's a nice challenge, I want to go for this challenge and I'm always that guy, I want to step out from the comfort zone, so I want to make the next step, I want to get to know myself better, I want to grow as a person of course also as a manager and of course like St. Paul was a great time, I was so grateful for the chance, I got there, great for the time I had with the team, with the fans, but I'm always this guy, it might be too much comfort zone then, so I want to leave this comfort zone and go for a new challenge and I think when I looked at bag was definitely a big challenge and the right challenge for me and I learned so many things during this two years now, I grow as a person, I grow as a manager and I could really shape myself and it's important, what was the biggest surprise when you joined the intensity, the intensity from the Premier League, what I mean is that, but the Bundesliga is pretty intense, isn't it? It's definitely also intense, but what I mean with the intensity is like every weekend you face a good opponent, so there's not like great steps, it's not like there's such a difference and the second thing, you face really good managers here in the Premier League, they all managers, they're exactly what they do, they all managers have a great style of play and they make it so difficult to beat you and then off top of that, they just have good in which you quality, so no matter where you go, let's say last season, you went to Sunderland, you think they just get promoted, they play an incredible season, you go there, it's a tough place, like the fans, their style of play, the players they have on the pitch, like it's just so good and that's why I think what really surprised me was the intensity of every game and this like, it's unpredictable, like small marches make such a big difference, small marches regarding due to block right or not in a set pitch, you can see the goal or not, you lose your man in the back, you can see the goal, you don't defend him one against one well, you can see the goal, so these small little marches make such a big difference in the Premier League and that's why I used this word intensity, what surprised me the most because these things I just described really like affected me at the beginning. Yeah, I suppose it brings us also to the fact that Brighton went for a young coach like yourself, to the data and the cleverness that what's Brighton's secret in terms of the data and all that, without, you don't give too much away probably, but you don't, you know, because this is from the audience, from the audience, like this special recruitment, but for me it's very important to emphasize like Brighton is known for a good recruitment, but for me it's very important that it's not only recruitment, what we do here is really develop, so we try to develop staff member because I'm convinced if the staff members get better in challenging and supporting the players, the players get better, but, and on top of that, we also want to develop the players and how to develop players I think you need, or be spoken by the identity, you need us, what's so important for me, like a core, a strong core in the crew, and we always had this core, for example last season we had this core, if it James Milner, if it anywhere with Louis Tank, Chase Steele, Pascal Grosscape, they built this core and these players, they are almost for a young player, so we need these kind of players who are leading by example and who built this culture together with me, so that's why I think the system for Brighton or the way from Brighton is very important to them, of course the recruitment is really good, of course we want to develop young players, of course we want to develop staff members, but the key bit for me is really alignment, alignment between me, the medicals, the nutritionists, the analysts, so every department is really aligned with the vision, every department is so clear about our identity, where we want to go, and I think that's like a red line that goes through the whole club, it starts with the owner, with the CEO, with me, with every department here in this building, and for me, I don't care if you are a cleaner kid man, groundsman, like everyone is so clear about our vision and where we want to go, what is our identity and what we expect from everyone, and I think this alignment, together with the recruitment, together with the development from staff and players, I think that makes this way so special. To do that must be really important who comes into the club, do you get any say, do you get final say on transfers or do they just go, we've found this player, this player, this player? Yeah, definitely, I really appreciate the collaboration between Tony and me regarding this, because of course Tony has this very database approach and I really identify myself with this, but on the other side it's really important for us as well, does he fit to our style of play, does he fit into the locker room, which kind of character he is, so never forget that we do a lot of research about the character, it's not only about data say the data, it's always a research, does he? How do you do that? How of interest? It's like a lot of, no it's a lot of like asking questions, for example, like ex coaches, like asking questions about the family members, how, for example, who's got you, how does you get a Gary behave when he's under pressure at home, or this one, it's how Gary behave when he wasn't playing, how does Gary behave under pressure, I was always playing, it's so cold, it was positive, I'm sorry, so I think these are questions that are important, you know, to get an understanding, and then I get always like a dossier about this background, where is it coming from, like we have like 70 different nationalities in our team, so you have a team? Yeah, so that's like a big challenge, and that's like, how many, did they all speak English? They should speak English, that's important, that's really important, but of course there's a little bit of marriage regarding language, we just had a new player coming in and his English not perfect, but it's good, so he has a teacher at the moment, and this teacher is also my teacher. You still have an English teacher? Not an English teacher, that's right, no English teacher, no English teacher, I'm trying to just learn Spain a little bit French as well, all right, okay, see you next step, is it? I tried to speak English, that's my scoop, that's my scoop, there you go, you know, so she taught me how I had this lesson, I teach the player, like give something in gold, it's a phrase in English, give something in gold, so try something, give something in gold, and then we had the meeting here, and we spoke a lot about the last game from Astralum, so I prepared the team about like giving gold, because Astralum plays a lot of giving gold, so this player came into the lesson with the teacher and said like oh, oh Kylie, Kylie, Kylie, like the Gaffa, her the phrase, he said like give something in a meeting, and Kylie said like when did you say that, give something in gold, and said no, no, no, I think he means give in gold, okay, you know, like there are sometimes his language for you, give something in gold and it's like in a given gold, so that's just funny things, but over we want to have like this language, like this English here, because it's very important that, and also how I see it, I'm a guest here, of course I feel more and more like English now, because I feel very adapted to this country, but over we wanted the, the players really speak English, that we have a common language here, and that's a crucial for me. Yeah, you've got players you come in, the group is great, but obviously being at a club like Bryant, it means you will lose players, yeah, do you build them up to be better players than they go somewhere else? That as a coach, it must be for a storm, you've lost Van Hacker for example, this summer it must be like, damn, I honestly, very, it's, it's part, it's part of all identity, yeah. I know from outside it might feel okay, it's terrible to lose always the best players, but what I always emphasize like we have this foundation, and this foundation we have is so strong, and therefore when you lose players, they just add players, of course every player is unique, but you can add these players because we have this foundation. They might fulfill, they fulfill the space we lost in a different place, or in a different manner, but overall the principles and the foundation, the values always stay the same. So I see it more as a positive thing, I see it more as, all right, it's a change that meets a new opportunity, a new perspective, a new voice, a new energy, so I think it's more like an opportunity than a bad thing, of course, it might need a little bit more time, but that's the way we have it here, right, and that's part of our identity, so I will never complain about this because it's about my response to the way to sort these things out and build this strong foundation we have and keep building it with the new add-ons. Also, obviously, we've talked to my E-Rage a lot, you must get sick to death and talking about that, but don't worry, you're getting hold of it, it won't happen for much longer. And also, it might be helped by the fact that two of the old players are now no longer with you, will you miss that experience of people like James Mulder and Danny Mulder in the dressing room? Definitely, you can't replace the experience they had, and you can't replace the conversations I had with them and there was a out. standing connection, I have them very honest, very loyal. And I think these two values are not that often football. They're always straight forward. They're always like, also sometimes like tough conversations, loud conversations in my office. But I always appreciate this. I always like, person throughout me, have a strong opinion. So that's why I think that's crucial. That also automatically means that some of our players might hide it in their shadow, in the shadow from these kind of big personalities. So when they are gunned now, that means they have to step up. They have to take ownership. They have to take responsibility. They can't hide behind the shadow from these personalities. How do you thought were those two players for you at this football club? They are definitely-- they were important on the pitch and beside the pitch. And I called, like I said before, my role as a friendly authority and a thing for that, they were brilliant because they helped me to get used to the brand-new league that I get inside of me and understanding what it needs to win games. And they also always, like, they reflected me. So for example, at the beginning I can give you one example. At the beginning, I was quite crucial in this counter-breshing. I was very consign when someone didn't do it. No matter if you were James Miller or Daniel Mel, like you had to do it. So you have to treat the players individually. But in certain moments, they're all the same. Regarding my standards, the players have to be all the same. But it's difficult sometimes. Sometimes it's difficult, but there are some non-negotiables. So me as a coach, I have some non-negotiables. They're just crucial. So everyone has to do it. So coming back to this example, I was quite strong on this counter-breshing. And in preseason, if they didn't do it, they had to run. They had to run. So no matter if you're at Daniel Mel or one of the experienced players, you had to do it. Because there was just a non-negotiable and I wanted to see from every player. So we did this. I was quite consequence. At one point, a little bit like last season, when we had this bad run, was like a feedback from James and also a feedback. I lost a little bit like this consequence. I didn't work on that anymore, because I didn't follow the phrase like, less or more. I think we were too complex at one point. We tried to get too complicated, too much involved, innovations, and new tactics. And we lost the basic. We lost our roots. So they just gave me a reminder. And I was open for that. I wasn't like, oh, he criticized me. I was like, all right. I appreciate your opinion. I take care of this. And I think these things are so important nowadays, what I mean, if sometimes the coach has to listen. And listening doesn't mean you lose your role or you being a manager, you don't lose your power. I think it shranks in your power. If you have this quality of not building followers, really building leaders beside you, I think that really shrinks in yourself and shrinks in the culture. And that's why I think that's quite an important connection relationship I had with them. So that's why they helped me regarding this a lot. And now it's up to me and up to the other players. Now I need to build new connections. Now I will build new relationships. Do you think you'll be leaders? I think I still have great leaders with Pascal Cruz, with Jason Steele, with Valuis done. These are, of course, the leaders who really have this experience in the Premier League. But we shouldn't forget, we have a bad for Britain. He goes, I think, now in his 30s. We have a Mats Viva. We have a 30-cardiole clue. We have a Pascal Schroig from Leeds. We have a sub-boda, who's also 27. They're all captains and leaders in their teams. And they're on a good football age. So what I demand from them now is to step up. What we need to give them is the environment where they can do it. So it might need time, like James Miller, when he was 37, 38. He was better leader than he was with 27. 26. So we need to give them the support and the time that they can grow and they can do it. But we also put our really demands on them. You are now in the draw where you have to step up. You can't hide behind big personal studies anymore. So I think it's a balance between these players and the experience players we have with Jason Steele, with Pascal. But it's very crucial that we give them time. It might need a little bit time. It might work from the beginning. But I have a big belief that it will be worth it. You've worked, obviously, lowly football in Germany. How much more excited is it working with top players than perhaps players at a lower level? Or does it change at all? So in the end, for me, it's like they're all persons. So the persons are all the same. And they act the same when they're not playing. They act the same when they're score goals. They act the same when they're frustrated, when they're criticized. Because the person behind the players always the same. It's definitely like you feel it regarding quality, when you speak of quality from the players. For me, it's like understanding the game. So they understand quicker. They can adapt quicker. So for example, I have players like Vejassin Ayari. You say to him one thing, he merely adapts to the game. You say it's time for Pascal Gross. He meets the adapt to the game. And that's also for me quality. It's not only about speed, about winning or being more physical. It's really quality for me understanding the game. And understanding in which areas are on the pitch and which decisions I have to do regarding the area I am on the pitch. How quickly does it take you to realize I can work with this player quickly. He's going to be good. I think it starts already in the meetings you have before you sign them. Like you get an understanding about this character. You're getting an understanding about his attitude. So just an example of the look I was good. I had several conversations with him before we signed him. And this kid was from the beginning so impressive. Like, how he thought about football? He asked questions towards me. I was like, all right, he really understands again. He wants to understand this game. He has this winning mentality inside of him. And I think what we also do is not only we focus. Of course, we have this recruitment regarding numbers. And he was really good at numbers. But we focus then on his body language. We focus on how he reacts when we concede a goal. And he always expresses himself on a pitch as a winner. And I think you have it or you don't have it. And then on top of that, he has this intrinsic motivation of I want to improve every day. And with these kind of players, you immediately have to feeling as this will work out. Because this attitude, I think, getting better every day, you have it or not have it. You have it inside of you. I want to improve, I don't want to improve. These things of technique execution, playing a short pass, playing a long ball, being in a side position to send the back, defending forward, defending back. But these are things you can develop with the player. And that's what I think. The basic is always the right mindset, the right character. And then you can transform them into a top, top, top player. And that's why I think players like we have Costiniar, we have Subota now signed. We have a Sadox signed. We have also look over which these players they will always go their way because they have the right mindset. Who's the best player you've worked with? I worked with the best player. Who is the best player? No, it won't be unfair towards you. I don't know, it's a real fair question. It's really like, I think it depends on who's the teacher's pet. And that's like. So for me, it depends on the position you're going for, you speak. But when you speak about the center back, like I said, I really enjoy working with Luis because he knows how to win the Premier League games. When you speak about sixes, James Melna is just a good understanding. Pascal Groves has a great understanding. And he's like two great teams with us. So these kind of players, they're just great to work with because they understand the game, and they understand how you want to play football. But beside that, I also really like the bright way of developing these young players. I can really identify myself. So when you see the journey from which all both on Hacker, where he went, where he was, when he arrived here, where he was now, it was from day to night. That's just incredible. Where you see Yasin and Ari. He didn't play in the championship. He came to us, he did well up massively. Like seeing players developing, seeing players growing that's such a fascinating thing for me. - Just give you a lot of pleasure. - Yeah. That's like why I want to say, I do this job. It's to see their journey, it's to see their path. That like satisfies me the most. Because you can really say, see that something, what you do, the daily thinking, the daily thinking about exercise, about talks of the players, about the games, about preparation. Like I think it reflects in a journey players go and that really is something what would satisfy me the most. - You've got European football this season. - Yeah. - Conference League. That's gonna be a big odysold youth to, because obviously that's different questions to be asked of the squad there. Have you got the depth to cope with European football as well? - Yeah, I think we are in a good way regarding death. So we definitely need a death in our, in our squad to handle more games, more game minutes. So that's the first part, the second part. It's also responsive to my coaching team and me to give to more players, understanding of my principles. So more players now have to understand our style of playing our principles. So that's the second challenge. And the third challenge will be traveling, the traveling to the games. How you can manage the energy, how you can manage, like that you have a good balance between, of course we want to be intense. Of course we're a lot together, but in the end they should enjoy it. So we need to find the balance between these things. So the best thing to definitely be a challenge regarding death of the squad. I'm convinced we will handle it well. We manage it well regarding principles. I'm also like quite see it as a good challenge for me and for my team to really make it true to everyone and then regarding the third thing. And this will be a challenge to really manage the energy. It's a competition that you could with, if you look at the Mae'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. Mae'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. Mae'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. Mae'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. Mae'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. I'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr. I'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. It'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'? It'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. It'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio'r ysgwyr i'n gweithio. 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