'I would say that the chances of us turning the season around are less than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favor, right?' Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as head coach of the League Two strugglers, and the daunting task of averting a drop into non-league football. It is a challenge at the polar opposite of the scale, though that unbelievable title win in 2016 gave him a great deal more than a winner's medal. {'It helped change my mindset a little bit ... it proved that the unthinkable can be achievable,' he remarks.
The natural place to start is: how did Fuchs find himself here? 'That's the part of the story that seems counterintuitive, wouldn't you say?' he states, letting out a chuckle. This serves as the 39-year-old's introductory line and a clear indication of his engaging character across a colourful conversation. Our talk flows in various tangents, from working under Thomas Tuchel and the former Leicester manager to the urgent quest to find a nearby hairdresser.
He looks at some post on his desk. There is a message from a Leicester supporter offering encouragement, along with a couple of glossy photos from that campaign. {'Young Fuchs,' he muses, smiling. Another delivery brings a collection of old stickers, one from an album celebrating Euro 2016, when he skippered Austria. A note from the Newport Supporters’ Club has pride of place. Things like this makes me very pleased,' he concludes.
Prior to coming back from North Carolina to accept his first job in first-team coaching last month, Fuchs’s last trip to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester were on the end of a Newport shock defeat in the FA Cup third round. During that match a former full-back faced off against Fuchs. {'He had the game of his career,' Fuchs recalls. But when the teamsheets were released, an interesting error was discovered. {'You need to redact this,' Fuchs remarks. 'They misspelled my name – somehow a 'k' crept in in place of the 'h'. It is amusing because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something pleasant.'
His decision to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 proved a masterstroke. A couple of weeks later Leicester brought in Claudio Ranieri and what followed is legendary. The Italian arrived at 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 older man, so long in the business, maybe a bit traditional, but he’s the complete opposite,' Fuchs states. {'He just said he was going to watch training in Austria for the first week. He remained on the sidelines at all. After that week we had a meeting and he said: 'I’ve studied you for a week and I’m not going to alter 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 extra out of the players? How can I challenge them psychologically?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a big part of our approach as well. How can you make good decision-makers? Back then he was probably in a analogous place to where I am now … very motivated, very anxious to prove himself.'
Fuchs’s drive originates in his early years in Neunkirchen. {'There are similarities to where we are now, because I was told when I was 11 years old that I would never be capable enough,' he reveals. {'There are people who let that overcome them or there are people who say: ‘Forget you, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You can't do this, you can not do that.’ I’m going to prove that I can and work my socks off. The other thing about my character is: I’m pretty determined. If I see potential, I’m doing it.'
Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and had been in charge of Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs opens his laptop to show analytics from a recent 2-2 draw, displaying a slide he showed his players. {'The team hit numerous season peaks,' he explains, highlighting ball progression and statistics about penetrating defensive lines. Passing accuracy was shown as 87%. {'Not satisfied with that … that needs to be in the mid-90s,' he states. {'My first game, it was very physical, 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 going long all the time.'
The broader numbers paint bleak reading. Newport have won three of 19 league matches and are yet to win in eight in all competitions. By the time of their next home game, they will have not tasted victory 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 secured a valuable point. {'We need to be a force at home,' Fuchs says. {'It’s just not good enough, not even having a win. We need to create a fortress.'
By his own confession, Fuchs enjoys a challenge. {'What’s so wrong with that?' He retired less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, likes being in the middle of the action. {'I’m a member of the group. I’m still a player at heart,' he remarks, pointing to his chest. {'At training I’m always getting involved in the boxes – two nutmegs already, brilliant! I want us to regard each other as a single unit. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re all in this together, we’re working on this collectively.'
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