Nick Bidwell picks out the players,

teams and coaches to watch in

Europe’s second-tier competition

10

to follow

1 The ‘New

Klopp’

MARCO ROSE

(Borussia Monchengladbach)

Y

ou do not require razor-sharp sensory

powers to detect the exhilaration

crackling in the Gladbach air at the

moment. The cause? The Bundesliga

side’s canny decision to hand the coaching

joystick to Marco Rose, the much-vaunted

ex-Red Bull Salzburg boss who has been

dubbed the spiritual heir to Jurgen Klopp.

The Klopp comparisons are perfectly valid.

A centre-back in his playing days, Rose played

under Klopp at Mainz, where the pair developed

a master and pupil relationship. Rose often

talks about absorbing Klopp’s people skills and

both have the same core values: the attacking

dynamism, feverish gegenpressing and full-on

energy, aggression and boldness.

Not that Rose is entirely a Klopp “Mini-Me”.

One major difference is the weight he attaches

to cultured build-up play. “We are looking for

control in possession,” he says. “But obviously

not if it means falling asleep.”

Rose and Gladbach look a good fit as far as

Europe is concerned. The club regularly used

to leave their mark in the old form of the

competition, the UEFA Cup, winning it outright

in 1975 and 1979, and finishing runners-up in

1973 and 1980. As for Rose, he took Salzburg

to the Europa League semi-finals in 2018. That

was the glorious season when Salzburg’s list

of supposedly superior scalps included Real

Sociedad, Dortmund and Lazio.

Could they emulate the recent Europa League

exploits of Eintracht Frankfurt, who

last spring reached the semi-finals? With

someone of Rose’s calibre in charge, it has

to be a possibility.

Ultimately, much will depend on how

quickly the Gladbach players learn the rather

complicated Rose playbook. These past few

years, the team has been anything but

pressing-orientated. Such a revolution in

choreography inevitably will take some time.

“Things have to take root,” skipper and central

defender Matthias Ginter told Kicker magazine.

“It needs a lot of work.”

Another issue they have to fine tune is their

all French strike-force of Alassane Plea – now

in his second season at the club – and under-21

international Marcus Thuram, signed this

summer from Breton outfit Guingamp for a

bargain €9million. If they click as an ensemble,

explosions should ensue.

Sadly, they will have to make do without

attacking midfielder Jonas Hofmann for a while

as he has been sent to hospital with damaged

cruciate ligaments.

10 TO FOLLOW

“We are looking for control

in possession. But obviously

not if it means falling asleep”