HOW Thomas Tuchel became the best coach in the world

To understand Thomas Tuchel we have to go back to 2009. Michael Jackson had just died, Barack Obama was the new president… “Yes, we can! Thank you." And an inexperienced 35-year-old youth

coach

took charge of Bundesliga club Mainz. A club where another interesting young

coach

, Jürgen Klopp, had started his own career. “We have known each other for a long, long time. We have a kind of common history. He worked for Mainz like me. “Back then we met the unknown Tuchel in little Mainz. From the beginning, he had the

best

coaches in the sport in mind. Bundesliga, he learned from the

best

.

Tuchel's playing career had ended at the age of 25 due to a knee injury, so he studied economics and worked in a bar, before returning to football as a youth coach. Mainz. The experiment was a resounding success. The unknown took Mainz to ninth place, at that time the best result in its history. His second season was even better: Mainz qualified for the Europa League. coach of a top-level team, more than a club used to fighting relegation. Training has always been at the center of Tuchel's success and his methods were revolutionary. For example, to prevent his players from relying on long balls, he cut the corners of the field.

Tuchel forced his players to look for solutions in small spaces. That meant that when they played in a full field, they played more freely. His approach: practice makes perfect. Another part of Tuchel's strategy is to prepare to counter each opponent. Klopp prefers Gegenpressing, Pep has tiki-taka, but Tuchel can beat them both by anticipating their every move and finding new tactical innovations. That's why in Mainz he never played twice in a row with the same formation and the same players. But this is also one of Tuchel's biggest problems. For him, players have always been a means to an end: pawns in his 4D chess game, which he can move at will.

And that means that sometimes the human touch is missing. Tuchel is a motivated personality, a perfectionist. The expectation of constant excellence from him creates friction with some players. A former player says... You would never hear a player say that about Klopp, who has always worked hard to get the entire team to agree with his ideas. Tuchel has a tactical advantage over Klopp, but not in the personal aspect of the job. Tuchel has never escaped comparisons with Klopp. In fact, he encouraged them. For example, in 2015, when he moved to Dortmund and, just like in Mainz, he succeeded Klopp.

The cerebral, meticulous and perfectionist Tuchel took charge of one of the most emotional clubs in the

world

. This was right before his first training session. He was happy to get his hands dirty and fix things himself, a job normally entrusted to an assistant. Tuchel planned each session in every detail, down to the millimeter. And it worked. Tuchel earned more points per game than any other Dortmund coach. And in each of his two years with the team, he led them to the Cup final, winning it once. He also achieved the best points total of any second-place team in Bundesliga history.

Unfortunately for him, Pep and Bayern were even better. These were Tuchel's first battles with Guardiola. The two tactical geniuses met on the sidelines of the Bundesliga and often also after matches for dinner. Another situation in which Tuchel could learn from the best. Tuchel also improved his players: players like Mats Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus were at their best during his reign. Tuchel moved Dortmund away from Klopp's heavy football and towards a game based on flexible possession, where the man with the ball always has multiple options. But players are also people and football doesn't always make sense. “Continuing with our breaking news, he comes from Germany. “The Dortmund police have confirmed that at least three explosions have occurred.” On the way to a Champions League quarter-final match, Dortmund's team bus was bombed.

One player, Marc Bartra, was seriously injured. The team was shocked, but after talks between club bosses and UEFA, the match was only delayed one day. Dortmund lost and then Tuchel jumped to the players' defense. Was Tuchel's human side shown? Or was he faking it? There were rumors that Tuchel was happy the match went ahead when it did. He also allegedly criticized his players, saying: "Am I supposed to beat Bayern with these weaklings?" His relationship with the club's bosses broke down. Even before these events, it seemed like his my-way or highway approach didn't fit. Dortmund CEO Aki Watzke emphasized that leading the club is not just about results...

All of that made Jürgen Klopp a perfect fit, but Thomas Tuchel? Not so much. Then Watzke decided to fire one of the best coaches in the

world

. But he wasn't out of work for long. At Paris Saint Germain, a completely different challenge awaited Tuchel. How does a group of world-class players become a team? And after the team started poorly the following season, Tuchel's relationship with the media

became

increasingly strained. The club's owners wanted more and a fight with sporting director Leonardo led to Tuchel's dismissal. His former employers didn't seem surprised, and Dortmund's Watzke said... The numbers back it up.

In all of his clubs, Tuchel has been a success. At PSG he won three out of four games. In his first half of the season at Chelsea he won 2 points per game, in the toughest league in the world. And his former training partner knew what to expect. "I already saw some routines, some fundamental process that I remember when I faced him, at Borussia Dortmund." Thomas Tuchel learned from the best, until he

became

the best. “It will be difficult to face it, because it was always complicated. Because he is good.” “I don't want to rest. I want the next one.

The next success. And I want the next title." "And I want the next process to have the same level of quality, of coherence and I want to be part of it.