Nach sieben Jahren hat Borussia Dortmund mit Thomas Tuchel einen neuen Trainer. Wie sollte der Klub aus Sicht seiner Fans die Lücke füllen, die sein Vorgänger hinterlassen hat?
[a lengthy article written before this season started; quite refrained from being nostalgic about Klopp’s charisma/uninspired by Tuchel’s lack of it; yes the translation is seriously delayed but...anyway, have a look at this now at the end of the first half of this season (btw what is the English equivalent for Hinrunde?) t/n]
How Dortmund prepares for the new era
WILL HE BE MISSED?
After seven years Borussia Dortmund has Thomas Tuchel as its new coach. From the perspective of its fans, how should the club fill the gaps which have been left behind by its predecessor?
Here sat he at his introduction: the new one. An unusual picture in the press room of Dortmund’s Westfalen stadium. Until only a few days ago had his predecessor been sitting at the same seat - in direct comparison the very differences between Thomas Tuchel and Jürgen Klopp were emphasised. Plainly dressed, almost a bit conservative, so appeared Tuchel at his first public presence at BVB. It seemed he wanted to disassociate directly from the always distinctly casually dressed ex-Über-coach of Dortmund. Klopp is dominant with the physique, holds his monologue ad lib and radiates - when his team does not stay on the 18th place - power and ease. At his debut Tuchel looked so lanky and wooden - last time you saw this in Dortmund was with Tomas Rosicky. “Eat something, for once!”, you would shout this out to him. As he spoke of his vision for the work at Borussia Dortmund, he looked at the notes laid before him from time to time. This appearance seemed to say that now a somehow rational approach succeeded the Klopp-ish stomach-and-instinct world.
Tuchel will be no half-baked copy of Klopp
OK then: Nothing could have been a worse signal than willing to frantically copy the successful predecessor. Thomas Tuchel has to find his own way and establish his own visions, because a strong coach will be capable of sensing the gap left behind by the departure of that man, who knew how to incarnate BVB in the last decade like no other - so much so that mockers labelled him as the Guru of a black-yellow cult.
My first personal experience with Jürgen Klopp was in 2008, shortly before the end of his first half of the season at BVB. The Fan Project of Dortmund invited the coach, who was still relatively new at that time, to a small evening event to get to know each other. As many as two dozen fans came, but Klopp was missing. Ten, twenty minutes passed, and he did not turn up. A short phone call was made and it turned out that he forgot this appointment. Instead Jürgen Klopp was on the way to the Christmas Market in Dortmund with his wife Ulla. However, instead of briefly apologising, the coach turned around and no more than a half hour later stood he in the small fan shop in Duden Street of Dortmund with his wife. While he talked about his first month at Borussia, the team, transfers and target setting, a couple of kids taught Ulla Klopp, who was apparently amused, the Westphalia dice game “Schocken”. The evening party was dissipated shortly before the midnight, and the unusual encounter with the coach and his wife left a noticeable impression to the attending fans. We were not used to so much straightforwardness and down-to-earth-ness with previous coaches.
Klopp as the close-to-folks entertainer It should by no means be the last time in the following years that Jürgen Klopp made impressions with his open and appreciative style, so to speak. This enabled him to get into conversations with Kalle [Riedle] and Jupp [Heynckes] at the refreshment kiosk, just like with the top leaders of German economy. Presumably Klopp could even hold an opening speech of a nuclear physics conference and entertained the audience splendidly. Unforgettable are those quick-witted, brilliantly played “crisis” interview, which Klopp improvised with Arnd Zeigler in the mixed zone after a 4:0 victory in Hanover. When three Borussia fans wanted to finance a film about the founding of Borussia Dortmund by crowdfunding, they asked Klopp for an auction of a devotional object. However instead of a “Pöhler” cap, the lads got the complete coach at their disposal - a whole day for the highest bidder.
Things like this are reasons why many Borussia fans are still struggling with the thought that this coach won’t sit at the dugout in the future any more. Jürgen Klopp not only took the heart of Dortmund by storm in 2008 - he has his place virtually cemented here. It also contributed that meanwhile with Klopp as the coach there was a certain down-to-earth-ness on the training ground of Dortmund. After they finished the training, the players used to carelessly pass by the onlookers, now they walked together to the fans, to patiently satisfy as many wishes for autographs as possible. Today this is, after the crowd for the Double winner and Champions League finalist took on an unforeseen scale, unfortunately no longer there. But it shows how much the coach put emphasis on things off the pitch as well.
The best salesman of his club
Jürgen Klopp demonstrated, interpreted, and formed BVB like no other coaches before him. He was the epitome of Borussia Dortmund in the past years. His own emotionality and philosophy of football out of running and attacking was more and more interwoven with what the increasingly expanding marketing department in the Dortmund offices had chosen as the brand essence of Borussia. The “Echte Liebe”, sworn by hook or by crook, was fulfilled to life by the appearance of Klopp. You could and you wanted to believe him indeed, when he solemnly confessed:“We are all a bit of in love with this club.”
In short: Jürgen Klopp was, besides his actual job as football coach, always the best salesman for his club as well, who allegedly picked up the phone to ring the doubtful sponsors to talk them into an extended contract - of course with success. BVB will miss all this from now on. Well then?
People were tired of Klopp-vocabulary
While things are often romanticised in memories: the liaison between Klopp and the Borussia supporters had finally revealed a certain fading appearance. The recurring vocabulary, such as “brutal quality”, “kick really well”, “cut out everything”, had lost the effects with time. It probably won’t make much difference for the team. Of course Borussia Dortmund in 2015 is no longer comparable to the club five years ago, when an underdog team full of talents, a bunch of thrilling young rascals, made themselves ready to provoke the established with their Woohoo-football. Slowly we ourselves are the established (again). With every multi-million-worth star purchase, the erstwhile innocence was given away a tiny bit, and the leadership of the club has also contributed to that not so insignificantly, that a little too frequently and obtrusively the great brand popularity was alas carried like a monstrance in front of the BVB crest. We have overplayed our cards a bit.
Tuchel seems to be ready, but not as a new guru
Nonetheless in the Klopp era there is more than just memories of success in football. Jürgen Klopp could lose the day so badly and be so unpleasant for the referees or journalists - despite of this, he conveyed certain values, on and off the pitch. It can be shown by merely a look at the fair-play-tables. In each of his seven years at BVB, his team was among the top three. Previously it was there for only three times in eighteen years. Sent-offs and divings were as good as never before. The team usually sought fair solutions. The coach never wasted any vicious words on his players and colleagues. Instead he skilfully used the media focus on himself to take the load off his players.
He even tried to take the load off his successor Thomas Tuchel. At his farewell match in Westfalen stadium Jürgen Klopp gave us fans a final message via the video screen, which seemed as plausible as unfulfillable: we should not compare. It will be rarely possible yet it is the right way. Thomas Tuchel has already in Mainz proved to be an outstanding coach and football expert. After seven years of fixed operations between the old coach team and the players, a couple of new stimuli are surely not a bad thing. Tactically, in retrospect of the last season, different emphasises and a further development of the existing way of playing is quite necessary as well.
Was Klopp merely a catalyst for identity discovery?
Yet the question stays open, how BVB is able to fill the gap in terms of atmosphere and identity establishing, which is left behind by the departure of Klopp. It might be completely wrong to expect this of Thomas Tuchel, because the new coach has, despite of all the similarities, a completely different personality from his predecessor. Instead, the change of coach offers Borussia Dortmund incidentally an opportunity to prove to itself and the football world that the conceptuality loaded with emotions and the attitude behind it were simply not just lent to the club by Jürgen Klopp, but firmly belong to the DNA of the club, and that the identity of BVB can stay completely independent of a particular coach of emotional attacking football philosophy and various values on and off the pitch.
The team shall be in the focus again
The absolute focus on one single person was beneficial during a critical stage. In the long term, however, it is not healthy. It requires a certain emancipation from Klopp. There is much to suggest that this could be done. When Klopp took his office, Borussia Dortmund was a club deeply unsettled with its identity impaired after the near-bankruptcy and insignificance in football, and the managers themselves had not found their way yet. Up until 2007 the coach-searching simultaneously landed on Felix Magath, Ottmar Hitzfeld and then Thomas Doll - three coaches, whose strategies and concepts could hardly have been more different. Today it is something else. The transition from Klopp to Tuchel seems distinctly more considered and well-planned.
If everything goes well, Jürgen Klopp was an ideal catalyst for BVB on the way to its identity discovery - an engine which the club needed urgently to find itself, yet had its actions designed to be sustainable enough, so that now the club can manage without the additional charisma from him. And Thomas Tuchel? The new one seems ready for his job. Perhaps not as a guru with the crowd lying at his feet, but as a successful coach - then that will do, for now.
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The author Arne Steding is a member of editorial staff from schwatzgelb.de
