"Changing the lens in which you view the sport."

Following his huge success at Borussia Dortmund, Jürgen Klopp was appointed Liverpool manager in 2015 and in doing so became the first benefactor of ‘modern’ German coaches to make it to the very top of the English game.

Klopp’s rise from player, youth coach to coach at provincial club Mainz 05 was heralded by many as the catalyst for a cultural change in a country that was suffering from an outdated football infrastructure.

His appointment, and consequential success at one of the biggest clubs in England, has represented, not just his coaching credentials, but his unique values as a human being.

His pathway laid the foundations for numerous young German coaches to follow in his footsteps into the English game with the likes of David Wagner at Huddersfield Town and Daniel Farke at Norwich City as notable successful examples.

They all represented a new recognition from English clubs of the talent of German coaches and the effect their installed values could have both on and off the pitch.

But what makes these values found in German football and German coaching special and how does it link to identity and change perspectives?

To help provide some insight is journalist Jonathan Harding - a freelance sports journalist and expert on German football.

He is the author of Mensch: Beyond the Cones – an incredibly up to date in depth look at what sets Modern German coaching apart.

Mensch translated means human and, as Harding described to me in our discussion, it is this humanity that is at the heart of what makes German coaching so special and unique. 

By delving into some of the themes he raises in his book, he provides greater clarity on what a coach’s role really is about in the wider context and what can be learnt when it comes to English football clubs, their fans and their identity. 

Value of youth coaching and the differences between England and Germany

Klopp’s rise and success at Mainz 05 in the early 2000s helped change the perception of what was possible in Germany if internal or slightly younger candidates were given the chance. 

As Harding explained in his book, it helped remove the pressure of appointing ‘a name’ and in doing so “changed the cultural approach to coaching appointments.”

Ever since, the likes of Julian Nagelsmann (now at RB Leipzig) and Thomas Tuchel (now at Paris Saint-Germain) have earnt recognition for their work at youth level and, in a sense, grafted their way to the top of the game by taking their opportunities at first team level when it was granted to them.

Harding explained to me that youth football in Germany is a lot more professional than its equivalent in the UK.

This is partly because clubs realise the amount of relevant experience and personal development a young coach can make at that level and the benefit of looking among their own ranks.

Compare that to the Premier League 2, the top youth level in England, and arguably the reality is much bleaker.

Harding explained: “I think the PL 2 is seen as an opportunity to feed the first team and, because of that, the person coaching those teams are almost a caretaker figure and their work is deemed somewhat useless in eyes of many clubs.

“A lot of it is to do with perception. Football is really one of those classic sports where how you do it isn’t as important as how it looks.

“I have a big problem with that, because I think a lot of people don’t get the opportunities they should on the basis that they didn’t market themselves well enough or it didn’t look good enough.

“In truth, Germany has this hype as well because nobody is exempt from that, but you do get the benefit of people at clubs recognising that a coach has coached so many games at youth level and that that actually means something.

“I think that makes a big difference.”

The perception towards youth coaching naturally then, feeds into the German ideal of working together as a collective.

The aforementioned success of David Wagner at Huddersfield Town and Daniel Farke at Norwich City are both examples of how, as Harding put in his book, “changing a club’s culture sometimes requires changing the lens through which you view the sport.”

“I think Stuart Webber (the sporting director responsible for those appointments) is one of the few people who has understood his role and understood the value of looking outside your own perspective,” Harding explained to me.

“I think in England there is a sense that we made this game, we buy the best players. I don’t know if it’s this stubbiness or a lack of willingness to look outside, but a lot of other leagues are doing something different.

“I think having the ability to look outside is invaluable, and clubs like Huddersfield Town and Norwich City appointed German managers because they value the German system.

“They deserve a lot of credit for picking up coaches that they feel had something to offer.”

The correlation between coaching appointments and identity in German football.

Although these new pathways have given a new generation of German coaches a grounding and a wealth of experience at a young age, evidence suggests that it helps them recognise their responsibility to the community for whom the football clubs serves.

This mindset in German football comes from the idea of that the team can’t succeed unless the community, and therefore the fans, are involved.

In our discussion, Harding explained to me about his conversation with a youth coach at Swedish club AIK and his discovery of how certain communities and certain cultures are reflected in the way they play football.

Harding explained: “I think culturally where you are and what you have around you impacts how you see the world.

“If you look at Holland, it’s so flat and so small, for example. People are obsessed with space.

“If you wonder why Dennis Bergkamp was so good at football and understanding how to use space, it was because he grew up in an environment on and off the pitch that reflected an obsession with space and how to use it.”

It’s this notion that helps to build an identity at any football club and, in Germany, clubs are built on a sense of worth in the community, fans having a voice and a sense of validity.

Modern German coaches, as a result, are now schooled in its importance at all levels of a football club.

“If you look at Julian Nagelsmann as a youth coach at 1899 Hoffenheim.

“They, the board, already had faith that he would be a good coach one day and they would give him an opportunity when the time came,” Harding exemplified. 

“I think teams can then see coaching talent at their own club which means that the coach can make the jump to the first team as he can incorporate the philosophy.

“I think if you, as a club, know that you are looking in house then that makes a difference.”

Provincial Bundesliga side SC Freiburg, for example, have been recognised as ‘doing things differently,’ with their identity intrinsically linked to that of current manager Christian Streich.

Streich, who had been affiliated with the club for 17 years prior as both as a player and as youth team coach before his appointment as the first team manager in 2011, is the Bundesliga’s longest serving manager and perhaps its most intriguing.

With a background in teaching, Streich has led the small Black Forest club to Europe twice and has consistently steered the club clear of relegation year after year despite losing many of his best players.

More importantly, as Harding explained to me, the 55 year old takes the view that nothing comes before the footballing philosophy, one that he himself curated with the community in mind.

Although he is very much part of the collective effort that has pulled the small Bundesliga club to some of its heavy heights, Streich’s role and ability to use his platform to touch on the social issues important to Freiburg is perhaps the most relevant. 

He is, as Harding described in his book, “symbiotic with the club.”

“Freiburg is a very left leaning city, very green, so you are talking about a very liberal space in which to operate and that reflects on the football team,” Harding explained to me.

“He (Streich) is able to retain a certain level of focus and retain this philosophy that they are going to play the most effective way to stay in the division.

“There is a very humble approach to the football club, he is very keen on spreading social understanding in the team and how players have a greater concept of what is going on in the wider context.

“I think he wants to educate people and fans as much as players and that’s also a reflection of the community.”

How English football can become outward in their approach to coaching appointments?

Although it’s important to consider Freiburg an example in the context of Freiburg, the relationship Streich has built from his time as a youth coach has enabled him to mould himself as a person and, at the same time, mould the club’s identity and philosophy from the ground up.

As Harding explained in his book, this philosophical thought process towards the role of a coach “isn’t necessarily unique in Germany, but is an increasingly rare one in the scheme of modern football.”

As is the case in England, success of the likes of Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, for whom led the Cherries to five consecutive seasons in the Premier League, is a poignant reminder that looking internally and differently can be successful in the English leagues.

However, English football clubs still have a tendency to appoint managers who have a ‘big name’ rather than then the one perhaps most appropriate, perhaps as the result of the perception from fans.

Harding, for example, mentioned in his book about his astonishment of the fact that almost half of the Premier League had been shared between just four men and the perspective of the community as a whole about what is deemed relevant experience. 

He told me: “You only have to look at how many of these managers are English. It’s not about nationality per say, but there are a lot of talented English coaches in England and I don’t see them.

“The same is true for young players and that’s because the Premier League has always been about being the best and being the best now – there is no room for development.” As a result, clubs such as Norwich City have been looked on as innovators as a small club looking outside their means in an attempt to survive.

As Harding pointed out to me, this approach to coaching appointments is still rare in English football clubs with few conversations around the bigger picture of a coach’s role in forming and maintaining an identity.

Therefore, in the case of smaller sides and smaller fan bases, there is a necessity of needing to do something different.

 “I think smaller clubs in England like Norwich and Huddersfield have begun doing exactly what teams in Germany have been doing for years and that is thinking outside in an attempt to survive.

“You cannot survive in a league like the Premier League if you are just going to do the same thing as other people when you don’t have the same financial means. These clubs make a decision to take a different step, to do something different.

“Otherwise they have to do what everyone else does and they are back in the same situation. The clubs make a conscious choice at both a club and at board level to do things differently in the hope that that is the best chance of succeeding.

“Doing the same as everyone else in a league where you don’t have millions of pounds to spend is madness.

“Often, you need external ideas and thoughts in order to change your thinking as just appointing the same names isn’t always going to get you where you want to be.”

Breaking the mould at Premier League teams

What German managers exemplify, even if not exclusively, therefore, is the realisation of looking at the bigger picture and what matters.

It comes back to the point about the psyche involved across all German football fans that there is a recognition that the team cannot always win and that success comes in many forms.

Harding mentioned in his book about a quote Jürgen Klopp gave to the press in December 2018.

At a time when Liverpool were still trophy-less under his reign, the German stated that if effort wasn’t recognised and silverware was the only gauge for success then “life was s**t.”

In our discussion, Harding argued that despite the plaudits Klopp has received for the Merseyside club’s performances on the pitch, he exemplifies the effect a coach can have on a community off it where he had reminded Liverpool fans of what they already had.

 “Liverpool fans that I’ve spoken to said they had forgot about how passionate they could be and Klopp came and reminded them of the importance of their community,” Harding told me.

“I think it’s harder for teams like Manchester United and Arsenal because their identity was so connected to their former coaches for so long that they now need to take a stance where they can take a step back and look to start again.

“You look at Mikel Arteta and how Arsenal move forward with him. He has great experience, worked under Guardiola, former captain of the club, knows the Premier League and has the technical knowledge.

“Unfortunately, because of the expectation around the Premier League and being the best league in the world and the branding around that, there is no time for him to get the three or four years he might need.

“At least in Germany, players are given the opportunity more often than not and so are coaches.”

The Premier League is arguably an environment driven by financial gain and unrealistic expectations where breaking the mould from both a club and fan perspective is hard.

Harding suggested to me that it’s this structure that prevents many PL club ‘bosses’ from being brave because ultimately the league is big business and change may pose a risk to the system.

“So much is about how much money they can make, be it shirt sales and moving to new stadiums and suddenly that plays a bigger role,” Harding said.

“If we are going to take a holistic approach that cares about people and fans, that cares about the environment and that cares about the philosophy, then the economic values need to be of secondary importance.”

“If not, you just merge into nothingness and merge into another team with a different colour with slightly less or more money than another team.

“Maybe you get given an identity because of your coach who is innovative in his own way. But ultimately, it becomes bland.

“As like Germany, you need to modernise tradition.

“You don’t let it die in the past, you need to make sure that those factors are brought forward.

“It’s not an accusation, but rather have clubs and fans thought about?

“I’m sure fans have thought about it, but it’s those fans that are being pushed out and are not being considered.

“Eventually, we are all part of the same process where we go to the game, watch a product and go home. Whether you like or not, you just become indoctrinated to the fact that that’s what you do.

“If things are to change, it will take a brave decision to shake everyone out of what’s happening.”