– On Saturday the FCN should have their first victory: their opponent in the home game (1 p.m., live ticker on nordbayern.de) is Fortuna Düsseldorf. Tactics expert Florian Zenger took a close look at the Rhinelander. Especially their trainers.
Who is on the sidelines?
An advancement coach. Christian Preusser has climbed a total of three times so far. Once with the U19 of Rot-Weiß Erfurt, twice with the second team of SC Freiburg. Now he should create the fourth ascent of his coaching career in Düsseldorf. The two previous stations were formative for the 37-year-old. In Erfurt he started in January 2009 at the age of 24 as an assistant coach of the U19s, and within 16 months rose to head of the football school and head coach of the A-youth.
When the Thuringian professional trainer dismissed Walter Kogler in March 2015, they promoted Preusser, now co-trainer of the third division team, to head coach. In the meantime, he had finished his football teacher training with Manuel Baum and Valérien Ismaël, among others. After 30 games on the sideline, Preusser was dismissed. After almost seven years, my time at Red-White was over. Half a year later he moved to Freiburg, where he stayed for five years and led the second team from the top division to the third division.
In Breisgau, Preusser trained young professionals, not only having ex-club Ivica Banovic as a leading player in the squad, but also three current club professionals: Patric Klandt, Lino Tempelmann and Mats Möller Daehli. Preusser learned not only how to train professionals, but also a lot from professional trainer Christian Streich, like him Rheinische Post, who referred to him as Streich’s foster son, stated: “Especially in my first two years in Freiburg I was often involved in professional training and during this time I was able to absorb an incredible amount from Christian Streich and his coaching team”
How is it played?
One of the reasons for the change from Uwe Rösler to Christian Preußer was that the management team in Düsseldorf hoped for a more offensive style of play. SC Freiburg II stormed into the third division with 95 goals in 42 games. Of all regional leagues, the SCF had the highest number of runs to gain space. In German: Nobody dribbled that much. This happened at high speed and a mixture of counter-attack football possession.
The high number of sprints, which also distinguishes the first team at SC Freiburg, was taken by Preusser to Düsseldorf. Fortuna ranks first in this ranking with 466 sprints in two games, even if this is of course not very meaningful after two match days. The same applies to the fact that Düsseldorf is the team with the most crosses after two games. But it has meaningfulness insofar as it shows that Preusser relies on the wing game at Fortuna.
Although the formations against Sandhausen and Bremen were different, he focused both times on double occupying the wings. 45 of the 62 attacks by the Rhinelander were played on the outside in the first two games, noticeably more than the opponents. Preusser also experimented personally, offering two different left-backs with Hartherz and Koutris and two different right midfielders with Narey and Klaus.
Who are the key players?
You can’t get past Rouwen Hennings. The 33-year-old has already scored five goals in the three competitive games of the season, even if two of them were from penalties. The striker is not a pure wall player or ball recycler, but seems to be more involved in the build-up game under Preusser, the number of his passes has increased by a quarter in the first two games compared to the previous season, although the team’s possession of the ball has remained the same.
Another central figure in the structure was Kristoffer Peterson in the first two games. The Swede equalized the 1-1 draw at the Max-Morlock-Stadion last season and thus already showed where one of his strengths lies. Again and again he manages – especially after quick diagonal shifts – to put the ball from the left wing into the back of the defense. There an attacker can run onto the ball and complete it. Something that Enrico Valentini in particular has to arm himself against, who could face Peterson in a direct duel.
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