SC Freiburg’s Courageous Choice: Julian Schuster Takes the Helm from Streich

With the promotion of ex-captain Julian Schuster as Streich’s successor, SC Freiburg remains true to itself and shows the courage to take the gap. The biggest challenge after the big turning point does not lie with the novice head coach. A comment from kicker reporter Carsten Schröter-Lorenz.

Follows Christian Streich in Freiburg: Julian Schuster.

Julian Schuster didn’t want to waste any time on his second professional career. Two days after the end of his playing career in May 2018, he threw himself into coaching training and started the 2018/19 season in the newly created role as Freiburg liaison coach. Since then, he has been working increasingly on the Bundesliga club’s coaching team as a sponsor of top talent and a link between the professional and youth sectors.

Schuster took the risk of not giving his body and mind a break after the demanding playing time. “At some point I will take a break,” he said in March 2019. That won’t happen for the time being. Schuster’s efforts seem to be paying off in terms of his career. He has held the Pro license since February 2024 – and will be promoted directly to Bundesliga coach in the summer at the age of 39 and without any head coaching experience. And that too as the successor to Christian Streich.

Typically Freiburg – from experience

It is a typical Freiburg decision to want to overcome this greatest possible burden with on-board resources. It corresponds to the very own SC philosophy of primarily promoting one’s own talents. The best empirical data supports this approach. Streich, sports director Jochen Saier, sports director Klemens Hartenbach or the long-time Streich assistants Lars Voßler and Patrick Baier – they all only qualified for key positions after years of work in the club, were already familiar with the structures, and relationships of trust were able to develop over the years. As with Schuster, he has also been socialized at SC since 2008.

Conviction and patience: The novice should develop in peace

The decision also shows the courage to leave the gap. The gap that Streich leaves as a charismatic personality and face of the club cannot be completely filled anyway. The decision-makers around Saier recognize this and have not hired an experienced head coach and frontman to replace Streich at all levels – and would therefore inevitably fail.

The separation of DFB and Adidas: A communicative debacle?

From Herzogenaurach to the USA: After more than 70 years, the DFB will end its partnership with Adidas in 2027. The successor: competitor Nike. Is the change in supplier really that surprising? How much money did Nike offer? We ask kicker expert Benjamin Hofmann that.

03/22/24 – 4:13 p.m. 11:45 minutes

Instead, a self-educated, loyal novice should develop in a calm SC environment thanks to the conviction and patience of those responsible and, first and foremost, appear sporty. Presumably he will be compared less with his popular predecessor than a successful football teacher who is profiled elsewhere.

Schuster won’t even try to copy Streich. Even though he revealed in kicker in 2019 that Streich’s personality entices talented teammates to do entertaining imitations. Given Streich’s sometimes cross-border behavior in the coaching zone, that wouldn’t be recommended anyway.

He had a remarkable playing career: Julian Schuster. imago images/photo booth

Empathic player improver – Schuster can do a lot with that

At the same time, Streich impresses as a player improver with empathetic leadership – Schuster can do a lot on this point. The father of four is a bright spirit, pleasant communicator, represents clear values ​​like Streich and has an equally sincere interest in the people he deals with. Added to this is his technical expertise, which he first enriched as a captain for years under the prank that he was very fond of and then as a colleague.

Bundesliga career thanks to strategic talent

In view of his clear deficits in terms of athleticism and speed, Schuster only managed to have a remarkable Bundesliga career thanks to his strategic and analytical talent and his work ethic, which made him a dangerous set-piece shooter. Good prerequisites for a coaching career.

The bosses have taken into account that the restart will probably not go smoothly and without dry spells, despite the support of a large part of the previous coaching team. They acted similarly last summer when they promoted home-grown Noah Atubolu to starting goalkeeper without a Bundesliga game and have since strengthened his fundamental progress despite occasional mistakes and setbacks.

What risks there are and who has to overcome the biggest challenge

Of course, the Schuster promotion also entails risks, especially due to the complete lack of experience as the main coach of a team. Even if words of praise can already be heard from the professional circle, these questions arise: How do the nine former teammates in the squad (Ginter, Günter, Grifo, Gulde, Höfler, Höler, Kübler, Lienhart, Philipp) deal with their everyday life Can you cope with a new boss, especially if he leaves you to languish on the bench? Like the talents who have previously been closely supported by Schuster? All of this will be exciting to watch.

The biggest challenge presented by the turning point has to be overcome by the club, which has continuously grown and has become an established member of the upper Bundesliga. How does he want to position himself publicly in the future? Stand up for your own values ​​eloquently? Who is more in focus besides Schuster? Streich has taken over almost the entire external presentation with a lot of charisma. This poses the risk of being perceived as more arbitrary and boring in the future, at least from the outside. However, what is probably less important to those responsible than the philosophy of growing out of oneself. At least Schuster’s personality is ideal for this.

2024-03-22 10:25:36
#Freiburg #biggest #challenge #Schusters