Leipzig is betting on Thomas Tuchel’s former assistant Zsolt Löw to save its season.
The 45-year-old Löw – no relation to former Germany coach Joachim Löw – was to take charge of his first training session as Leipzig’s interim coach on Monday, a day after the club fired Marco Rose.
The Hungarian coach has two days to prepare the team for its German Cup semifinal at Stuttgart on Wednesday, but his principal task will be to ensure Leipzig qualifies for the lucrative Champions League.
Despite losing all but one of the eight games it played in Europe’s premier competition this season, it’s likely to have been worth around 50 million euros ($54 million) plus matchday revenue to the Red Bull-owned club.
Leipzig is currently sixth in the Bundesliga, three points behind fourth-place Mainz, with seven rounds of the season remaining.
"The team now has a duty to turn things around together with Zsolt," Leipzig sporting director Marcel Schäfer said.
Löw is taking over a team that has failed to win any of its last eight away games and failed to score in the last five of those. Leipzig hasn’t won away from home since beating Holstein Kiel in December.
Stuttgart hasn’t won any of its last six games, home or away, but will be able to count on vociferous support on Wednesday.
Löw was previously assistant coach under Leipzig coaches Ralph Hasenhüttl and Ralf Rangnick, and then an assistant to Thomas Tuchel at Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich. He was last working as Red Bull’s "head of soccer development" under the energy drinks concern’s new global soccer chief, Jürgen Klopp.
Löw will need to develop under-performing players like Xavi Simons, Loïs Openda and Benjamin Šeško. Šeško and Openda are the team’s top scorers in the Bundesliga with three goals each. Simons only has one.
Löw will be in charge for at least eight games. His first will determine whether it’s nine with a German Cup final in Berlin.
