It’s been a long time since a coach at FSV Mainz 05 has shown so much passion and enthusiasm. “There was nothing artificial about Bo Henriksen’s first press conference with Rheinhessen,” assures a Swiss journalist who knows the Dane from his time at FC Zurich. “It was totally authentic, that’s exactly how he is.” With his style, Henriksen even won over opposing fans in Switzerland. “In fact, he is a bit comparable to Jürgen Klopp.”
That would be a significant difference to the predecessor, who was released on Rose Monday. Tactically, Jan Siewert couldn’t be accused of much, except that he approached one or two games too defensively. The fact that Mainz only won nine points in the twelve games under his leadership was mainly due to a lack of efficiency. What Siewert lacked was the ability to emotionally win over listeners. He answered questions briefly and rarely went into detail. A single Henriksen answer seemed to take longer than a complete Siewert press conference.
After eleven games in a row without winning, the first thing is to “build a winning mentality,” says Henriksen before the Bundesliga game against FC Augsburg this Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky). “Everyone has to believe that we will win against Augsburg on Saturday. I already believe that.” A major problem that he noticed when analyzing several Mainz games was of a mental nature. There is power, intensity and quality in the team – “but the players have no self-confidence”. Awakening this is a central point of his work.
His CV suggests that Mainz have found the right man. “Many of my teams were relegation candidates, but I was never relegated,” says Henriksen. “This time too, I believe 100 percent that we will stay in the league.” His record in Zurich is impressive: As reigning champions, FCZ fell to bottom of the table last season. Henriksen took over, managed to stay in the class, temporarily led the team to the top of the table in the current round and gave it up in third place.
“He found a team there in crisis and without a real goalscorer,” says the Swiss journalist, drawing a parallel to the situation on Bruchweg. “But he managed to transfer his passion to the players very quickly.” The fact that Henriksen introduced himself in Mainz as a friend of “power football” – which evokes associations with Klopp and Tuchel’s high-pressing style of play – should of course not be taken into account overestimate. “Bo is a pragmatic coach. He wants to win, and the end justifies the means.”
Peter H. Eisenhuth, Mainz Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Roland Zorn, Stuttgart Published/Updated: Roland Zorn, Stuttgart Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
In Mainz, everyone involved will be particularly interested in positive results in order to at least push 1.FC Cologne out of the relegation place. In Zurich he usually played with a three-man chain and two defensively oriented full-backs, while the strong midfield was joined by three offensive players. The coach’s announcement that he did not want to extend his contract in Zurich brought the 05er onto the scene. A 1-0 win against Augsburg for them, says the Swiss colleague, would not surprise him.
