New Borussia Mönchengladbach head coach Marco Rose has hailed former Mainz boss and current Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp for influencing his career, but insists he will do things his way with the Foals.
Rose held his first official press conference in the Gladbach hotseat on Wednesday, having left Red Bull Salzburg to take over from Dieter Hecking at Borussia-Park this summer.
The 42-year-old spent the bulk of his playing career at Mainz after being signed by Klopp in 2002, and was part of the side that won promotion to the Bundesliga in 2004 – a feat Klopp recently said was the “greatest success” of his 15-year managerial career to date.
The duo were colleagues for six years until Klopp left for Borussia Dortmund in 2008. Rose, a defender by trade, stayed on for two more years and made 150 appearances overall for the 05ers until he hung up his boots in 2010.
I spent a lot of years under Kloppo and it was a great time, Rose said. He shaped all of us. We picked up a few things in terms of football, but above all it was the way he was with people [that was influential]. Maybe there are a few parallels with Jürgen, but I’ve also found my own style.
And it’s been a successful one. Rose won the UEFA Youth League with the Red Bull Salzburg U19s in 2016/17, a success that paved the way for his promotion to first-team boss in June 2017. He took the step up in his stride, guiding Salzburg to the Austrian Bundesliga title in his first season and bowing out with a league and cup double in 2018/19.
The basic ideas behind my playing philosophy are emotionality, hunger and being active, Rose explained. We want to be very active working against the ball when we lose possession, lots of sprinting. We want to win the ball high up the pitch and have a short path to goal. And when we have the ball ourselves, we want to play well; we don’t want to punt high balls up the pitch, but be quick and dynamic getting forward.
If Rose was sounding all the right notes, he was also well aware that implementing that kind of attractive football will be easier said than done. I know, that all sounds really amazing, he said, laughing in a laid-back, Klopp-esque media briefing. We’ll need some time to put these things into practice.
I’m aware that the expectations are high, he continued. But I won’t be focusing too much on our position in the table initially. The key thing for me is how we perform. The fans should be able to say that they identify with our football. But obviously you also need to win games in the Bundesliga and deliver results, I know that. And I’m confident we will get results.
Gladbach finished fifth in the Bundesliga in 2018/19, qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. Rose’s task now will be to consolidate the team’s place in the top third of the table and push for a return to the Champions League, a competition the Foals have not featured in since finishing bottom of Group D in 2015/16.
Borussia are a club with massive potential, Rose said. That potential was definitely exploited last season by finishing fifth. Now we want to continue developing in certain areas and to try to stay as successful as possible.
