They don’t really want to think about the past at FC Augsburg, and yet in preparation for the upcoming home game against VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday, their confidence is also fueled by hindsight. At least from the one that doesn’t go back too far, but a little further than just last Sunday, when 1. FC Heidenheim achieved a remarkable 5-2 win after a 2-0 deficit thanks to five different goalscorers. “This shows the diversity of our team, that there is quality everywhere, that everyone can score a goal and that it will be extremely difficult for the next teams to be able to assess that,” said a hopeful Phillip Tietz.
In the summer, the 26-year-old attacker defected from newly promoted SV Darmstadt 98 to Augsburg for a fee of around two million euros. At the other newly promoted team Heidenheim he scored his first Bundesliga goal when he converted Fredrik Jensen’s corner with a controlled volley to make it 1-2 from FCA’s perspective. Tietz then drove the turnaround further with his assist to Mads Pedersen’s 2-2. With his goal contributions, Tietz represented the potential that the squad offers and that needs to be exploited, as sports director Marinko Jurendic had recently called for several times.
In Heidenheim, Tietz also represented the new cheerfulness at FCA with his extremely cheerful assessments. Tietz joked and laughed again and again, even as he thanked all those who are close to him. Especially to his wife, but also to his colleagues. “I see the boys every day and I love them so much,” said Tietz. He beamed.
It was probably not just because of his personal sense of success that he reported his heartfelt feelings so openly, but also because of FCA’s first away win in more than a year. The Augsburg team also achieved their first away win since being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2011 after coming from 2-0 down – and the first with five goals of their own. Looking back, however, you can go back a few days further, to Tuesday of last week, to explain the success and new confidence at FCA.
“Believe in your own strengths, don’t focus too much on what your opponent is doing, just do your own thing.”
It was the day on which the successor to the released Enrico Maaßen, 39, appeared in front of the team for the first time. The new coach Jess Thorup picked up the players “from second one,” said midfielder Niklas Dorsch. Thorup succeeded in this by conveying an important guiding principle. He told the team: “Believe in your own strengths, don’t focus too much on what the opponent is doing, but do your own thing,” said Dorsch. The coach ordered offensive thanks and immediately tried to “get everyone on board,” including the disappointed ones in the squad. “It’s the art of steering everyone in the right direction,” said Dorsch, “he leads with brutal authority and everyone follows him.”
Tietz confirmed this. Thorup prepared the team extremely well, and not just tactically. “He talked a lot with the team, encouraged us, he said that he would give us things, but we would decide on the pitch,” said Tietz, falling into the English vocabulary that the 53-year-old Dane uses in training. Thorup spoke “Denglish,” said Tietz and laughed again. Thorup attaches great importance to ensuring that everyone understands him, and the trainer takes the time to do that. Dorsch added that Thorup specifically promotes a sense of community. At the same time it grants freedom. The players were allowed to spend the night before the short away trip at home.
At least for now, Thorup’s measures have obviously had an impact, although the 0-2 deficit continued to highlight existing defensive weaknesses, especially when it comes to the opponent’s set pieces. But the decisive change at FCA seems to have been less the return to the back four or the selection of the first eleven, but rather the new working atmosphere with a mixture of concentration, trust and ease.
Thorup also radiates exactly these elements when he appears in public and speaks calmly, clearly and at the same time approachably and cheerfully. Like in Heidenheim, when he was asked about the suit he wore at the game. Thorup said he also had training clothes and even shorts to choose from, “but today it was such an important game, so I said: Now I have to wear something nice.” He smiled, also with a hint of self-deprecation.
With his natural authority but at the same time accessible charisma, his first contact with the team after the heaviness of the last few weeks with Maaßen must have seemed like a tipping point, only in a positive sense. Maybe you can actually imagine it like this: that Thorup spoke to his new players for the first time and you quickly heard an imaginary crack like the beginning of a large mass of ice breaking off in Antarctica. A few days later in Heidenheim, autumn actually felt like a second spring. Away from actual climate change, this also applied to the new internal climate at the FCA. How lasting the turnaround from the first days with Thorup is remains to be seen against Wolfsburg and afterwards.
