2023-11-20 20:28:37
Klauß, who was most recently on the coaching bench at 1. FC Nürnberg in the second German Bundesliga until October 2022, will lead his first training session on Tuesday. The first goal is to score as many points as possible before the winter break and improve from eighth place. “The focus is on the next three games to improve our starting situation. We will do everything we can to make ourselves better off than we are now. The important thing is that before you look at the table, you look at the performance, then the result, then the table, in that order,” he explained.
Klauß should end the series of five games without a win in front of their own crowd at the home game on Sunday (5 p.m.) once morest newly promoted Blau-Weiß Linz. The third Rapid head coach from Germany following Lothar Matthäus (2001/02) and Mike Büskens (2016) is confident, emphasizing that it is “not a team that is in ruins”.
The German, who comes from Eberswalde in Brandenburg, was contacted for the first time by Markus Katzer, Managing Director of Sports, at the beginning of last week and “felt very comfortable in the process from the start. We quickly realized that we fit together and had a common idea of what we might do with the club and the squad,” said Klauß, describing the first discussions.
Katzer was also quickly convinced. “After the 20-minute phone call, I said I think it’s him. The next day we talked in detail regarding the situation and the squad. “In terms of profile, he was the best candidate, an absolute specialist who worked for a long time at an excellent academy,” said the sports director.
Steffen Hofmann, spokesman for the management, was also pleased to have a trainer “who identifies one hundred percent with our path and our philosophy.” Rapid President Alexander Wrabetz was happy to have an experienced head coach despite his young age. “During the discussions, he absolutely convinced us with his demeanor and his concept. We also received very positive feedback from the many inquiries we made regarding him.”
Klauß will take an assistant coach with him, interim coach Stefan Kulovits will also be part of the new support team, and Jürgen Kerber will take over his role as head coach of the two-man team. The squad, on the other hand, will not undergo any lifting. “I’m not a coach who calls for reinforcements. There is currently no desire for reinforcements,” explained Klauß, who comes from the Red Bull coaching team in Leipzig.
Before his two-year stint in Nuremberg, he was assistant coach at RB under ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick and later the German national coach Julian Nagelsmann. “A young coach who is courageous, who tries things out, who has already worked with many good coaches in his career,” said Nagelsmann, describing the new Rapid coach on Monday.
The former center forward started his coaching career at the age of 25 and graduated from the DFB coaching academy in 2018 as the best in his class with a grade average of 1.0. At his first stop as head coach in Nuremberg, whose fans maintain a close friendship with Rapid supporters, he was unable to intervene in the Bundesliga promotion battle as he had hoped.
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