New Hoffenheim coach:Back to your own DNA with Ilzer
Hoffenheim’s new coach Christian Ilzer is a workaholic who often leaves the office at midnight. The man who won the double in Graz has big plans for TSG.
Christian Ilzer during his presentation
Source: dpa
Christian Ilzer hadn’t seen much of his new home when he was introduced as the new Hoffenheim coach on Monday morning. He had only set up in Kraichgau the evening before, “and everything was already dark.”
But if you believe TSG’s new head coach, he won’t get much of the Kraichgau’s charms in the future: “I don’t need a big apartment. It’s the case that I’m often in the office until midnight to work intensively on our path .”
“Dream coach” Ilzer as a chess player
The man who recently won the cup and championship double at Sturm Graz will not have many training sessions left. TSG has no fewer than eight competitive games in three competitions before Christmas.
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Ilzer, whom Hoffenheim’s new sports director Andreas Schicker, who also came from Graz, described as his “dream coach”, wants to approach it like a chess player who takes over in the middle of the game.
Ilzer brings his coaching team with him
After all, he doesn’t even care about how the positioning on the board came about. “He assesses the situation and knows the right moves to make. And that’s exactly how we want to do it.”
He also enjoys working in a large coaching team and made it a point to take his two assistants with him to TSG. In fact, in the past few days almost the entire sporting management has been transferred from Graz to Kraichgau.
Massive bloodletting near Graz
First came sports director Schicker and his technical director Paul Pajduch in October. Ilzer is now bringing Dominik Deutschl and Uwe Hölzl with him as assistant coaches and, from December, athletics coach Marco Angeler.
The two previous Hoffenheim assistant coaches Benjamin Hübner and Frank Fröhling, who looked after the team after parting ways with Pellegrino Matarazzo, are allowed to stay.
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Ilzer: “I have a clear conscience”
“I have a clear conscience,” explained Ilzer when asked about the bloodletting in Graz. On the one hand, there are no good or bad times to change a club.
And on the other hand, he “worked for over four years to overthrow the industry crony Red Bull Salzburg. We then succeeded.” Even now Graz is “back on track” so that he can take a step back.
“It should become clearer what TSG stands for”
Meanwhile, Schicker outlined where TSG is headed in the medium term in the club magazine “Spielfeld” published on Monday:
In the future, I want to keep fighting for Europe with a young team that is at best one of the three youngest in the league – and thus cause surprises. It should become clearer again what the TSG stands for.
Christian Ilzer
TSG Hoffenheim wants to show a different face
If Ilzer has his way, TSG will show a different face in the home game against RB Leipzig next Saturday than in the recent 2-0 defeat against FC St. Pauli: “We want to create a good home atmosphere, we are responsible for that.”
Source: Reuters
