🔗 Share this article

'I reckon that the odds of us reviving our campaign are slimmer than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favor, right?' Christian Fuchs is talking about his recent venture as boss of the League Two strugglers, and the daunting task of preventing a descent into non-league football. Here lies a challenge at the complete other end of the scale, though that fairytale title win in 2016 furnished him far more than a Premier League trophy. {'It contributed to shifting my mindset a little bit ... it proved that the unthinkable can be achievable,' he notes.

The Illogical Path to Rodney Parade

The natural place to start is: what brought Fuchs find himself here? 'I imagine that's the part that's unpredictable, right?' he states, erupting in a laugh. This remark acts as the 39-year-old's opening gambit and a clear demonstration of his playful character across a wide-ranging conversation. Discourse travels in various tangents, from being managed by Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the pressing need to find a local barber.

He looks at some correspondence on his desk. Among it is a note from a Leicester supporter sending best wishes, along with a couple of glossy photos from that season. {'Young Fuchs,' he muses, with a smile. Another envelope brings a hoard of old stickers, one from an album celebrating Euro 2016, when he captained Austria. A note from the Newport Supporters’ Club is given special attention. 'Stuff like this genuinely makes me very content,' he concludes.

A Past Trip and a Funny Mistake

Until his move back from North Carolina to take on his first job in first-team coaching last month, Fuchs’s last trip to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester suffered a Newport cupset in the FA Cup third round. During that match a former full-back competed with Fuchs. {'He had the match of his career,' Fuchs admits. But when the lineup cards dropped, an amusing error came to light. {'You need to redact this,' Fuchs jokes. 'They misspelt my name – somehow a 'k' crept in in place of the 'h'. It is funny because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something fitting.'

Experiences from The Tinkerman, Rodgers and Tuchel

His choice to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 turned out to be brilliant. A couple of weeks later Leicester hired Claudio Ranieri and what followed is legendary. The Italian came to the club in the midst of a pre-season camp in Austria and his observational approach produced miracles. {'When you observe Claudio you picture an elder gentleman, so experienced in the game, maybe a bit old school, but he’s anything but,' Fuchs says. {'He just said he was going to watch training in Austria for the first week. He stayed out of it at all. After that week we had a meeting and he said: 'I’ve watched you for a week and I’m not going to change anything.''

Fuchs holds dear experiences from Rodgers and Tuchel, under whom he worked while on loan at Mainz. {'He always considered: ‘How can I get more out of the players? How can I challenge them mentally?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a big part of our methodology as well. How can you make good thinkers on the pitch? Back then he was probably in a comparable position to where I am now … very motivated, very eager to prove himself.'

Origins and a Determined Character

Fuchs’s drive comes from his early years in Neunkirchen. {'There are parallels to where we are now, because I was told when I was 11 years old that I would never be capable enough,' he shares. {'There are people who let that defeat them or there are people who say: ‘Watch me, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You cannot do this, you can't do that.’ I’m going to demonstrate that I can and give absolutely everything. The other thing about my character is: I’m quite headstrong. If I see possibility, I’m making it happen.'

Data-Driven Approach and the Fight for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and previously led Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs fires up his laptop to show analytics from a recent 2-2 draw, sharing a slide he showed his players. {'The team hit many, many season peaks,' he says, noting ball progression and statistics about penetrating defensive lines. Passing accuracy was logged at 87%. {'Not satisfied with that … that needs to be in the 90-95% range,' he declares. {'My first game, it was very direct, lower-league football, but we want to be different. I think a five-yard pass has a higher chance to find its target than just launching it all the time.'

The broader numbers make grim reading. Newport have managed three of 19 league matches and are winless in eight in all competitions. By the time of their next home game, they will have not secured three points at home for 273 days and have kept just two clean sheets in 26 matches this season. But a recent last-gasp equaliser with 10 men garnered a precious point. {'We need to be a force at home,' Fuchs stresses. {'It’s just not satisfactory, not even having a win. We need to construct a impenetrable home.'

In the Thick of It at Heart

By his own acknowledgement, Fuchs enjoys a challenge. {'What’s so negative with that?' He ended his playing career less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, enjoys being in the thick of things. {'I’m a part of the group. I’m still a player in here,' he says, indicating his chest. {'At training I’m always getting involved in the drills – two pannas already, brilliant! I want us to view each other as one team. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re all in this together, we’re striving towards this collectively.'