Markus Krösche is the new sports boss at Eintracht Frankfurt. His first coup was the engagement of Oliver Glasner as a trainer. In an interview with SPORT BILD, the former Leipzig also talks about why he chose the coach from Wolfsburg.
SPORT BILD: Mr. Krösche, you were sports director at runner-up RB Leipzig. Looking at the table, is the move to Eintracht Frankfurt a step backwards, or is it a career leap because you are now the sports director with more skills and freedom?
Markus Krösche (40): I don’t think in terms of career steps. That would be the wrong reason for such a decision. What appeals to me is the task of working in a managerial position at a traditional club with great charisma. I can contribute and implement my ideas for further development. I enjoy it, I find it exciting. For years, Eintracht has combined tradition and the demands of modern football. And in the environment I see that there is still a lot of potential.
What kind of boss do you want to be?
Employees, be it in scouting or in the medical department, are given responsibility and the freedom to make decisions in their areas. I’m not a control freak. If someone doesn’t want to make a decision, in the end it comes from me. If things don’t suit me, I clarify it privately, never in a large group. And I only criticize the matter and never the person. At my previous stations, nobody has complained that I grabbed him too hard or too softly.
Oliver Glasner is the new trainer at Eintracht Frankfurt
Foto: picture alliance/dpa
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You have signed Oliver Glasner with your most important employee. What was decisive in the search for a coach?
In my opinion, a coach has to embody four aspects. First: authenticity and people skills: can he identify a player’s needs? Can he listen and convey to the player how he can achieve the goals with his specifications? Second: Can the coach recognize the potential of players and use them in the right position? Oliver Glasner had two good examples in Wolfsburg: Yannick Gerhardt played sixes for a long time and came into full development in ten. Ridle Baku started out as a right-back but flourished in right midfield.
Third?
A coach should make players better. This can be measured quite well not only through data. And fourth, can a coach intervene successfully during the game? That is the hardest part. To do this, he has to recognize things quickly at high game speed. I also find the topic of data scouting for trainers exciting.
Why do you have such a weakness for data?
I hated math at school. And actually I always cheated my way through statistics seminars when studying business administration. In football, however, I have always been fascinated by data because it makes things measurable and explainable. In the last five or six years the statistics have become more and more meaningful.
Among your Bundesliga colleagues, you refer to Wolfsburg boss Jörg Schmadtke as your mentor, with whom you occasionally speak on the phone. The negotiations for a transfer fee for his coach Glasner were worth millions. In the end it was 1.8. Was there a friendship discount or was there a tough fight?
We each had our point of view. But we didn’t bother each other. It was very fair for everyone involved.
Schmadtke and Glasner fell out in Wolfsburg. What did Schmadtke warn you about?
Jörg Schmadtke spoke very appreciatively about Oliver Glasner. Not a negative word was uttered.
You have a football teacher’s license, Glasner was a trainer manager in Austria. Rather a risk of a lack of competence or a chance for mutual understanding?
It’s good if I understand the coach and know how his decisions are made. And he can understand what constraints apply to my work. But we discussed it this way: We have two different playing fields on which each of us moves. In between there is a line that none of us will cross.
RB Leipzig gave you clear guidelines when planning the squad, for example that players should not be older than 24 years. What rules do you see for the composition of the team at Eintracht?
Squad planning must never be dogmatic. With all the thinking about potential for the future, one must never forget that you also need players who improve you immediately. But: Basically, it makes sense to rely mainly on young players. My job here is also to create market value for players.
Most recently, the club brought 17-year-old Fabio Blanco from Valencia CF, one of Spain’s greatest talents, on a free transfer. Is a transfer like Jude Bellingham for 20 million euros conceivable in the future?
This category will be rather difficult for us.
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Which football do you want to see from Eintracht?
Basically, we need players with courage who can play offensive football. It’s important to me to have as many players with different strengths as possible in the squad – even in the same position.
Do you have an example?
Take the right-back: Against Bayern and Kingsley Coman, we need someone who can defend one against one and can even use spaces on the counterattack. Against other clubs that are lower, more of a player type who is good at offensive one-on-one and has good football solutions under pressure. I try to give the coach more options so that he can freely decide before each game which skills he needs to win.
Under your predecessor Fredi Bobic, Eintracht reached Europe three times in five years and won the DFB Cup in 2018. What is your goal to be measured against?
We want to develop the way we play. There will be results on this, and then we will see where it will lead us. To repeat fifth place and the 60 points from last season is challenging. It would be fatal to announce that we have to achieve this again. It goes without saying that we want maximum success.
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