🔗 Share this article

'I estimate that the likelihood of us reviving our campaign are slimmer than Leicester lifting the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?' Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as boss of the League Two strugglers, and the daunting task of averting a drop into non-league football. Here lies a challenge at the complete other end of the scale, though that unbelievable title win in 2016 gave him far more than a Premier League trophy. {'It contributed to shifting my perspective a little bit ... it showed that the unattainable can be possible,' he remarks.

'How Did Fuchs Find Himself Here?'

The obvious place to start is: what brought Fuchs wind up here? 'That's the element of the story that seems counterintuitive, wouldn't you say?' he says, erupting in a chuckle. This serves as the 39-year-old's opening gambit and a clear indication of his charismatic character across a fascinating conversation. The discussion flows in multiple pathways, from being managed by the current England boss and Brendan Rodgers to the pressing need to find a barber in the area.

He opens some mail on his desk. Among it is a message from a Leicester supporter sending best wishes, paired with a couple of professional photographs from that memorable year. {'Young Fuchs,' he remarks, grinning. Another package brings a hoard of old stickers, one from an album marking Euro 2016, when he captained Austria. A greeting from the Newport Supporters’ Club is displayed prominently. Items like this genuinely makes me very pleased,' he states.

A Previous Visit and a Funny Mistake

Until returning from North Carolina to accept his first job in senior management last month, Fuchs’s most recent encounter to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester suffered a Newport giantkilling in the FA Cup third round. On that occasion the Newport kit man competed with Fuchs. {'He had the performance of his life,' Fuchs admits. But when the official sheets dropped, an interesting error emerged. {'You need to censor this,' Fuchs remarks. 'They got wrong my name – somehow a 'k' smuggled itself in in place of the 'h'. It is amusing because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something nice.'

Experiences from Claudio, Rodgers and Tuchel

His decision to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 proved inspired. A couple of weeks later Leicester brought in Claudio Ranieri and the rest is history. The Italian joined the club in the midst of a pre-season camp in Austria and his observational approach worked wonders. {'When you see Claudio you imagine an older man, so a veteran of the sport, maybe a bit traditional, but he’s anything but,' Fuchs explains. {'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 studied you for a week and I’m not going to change anything.''

Fuchs values insights gained from Rodgers and Tuchel, under whom he worked while on loan at Mainz. {'He always thought: ‘How can I get extra out of the players? How can I test them mentally?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a big part of our methodology as well. How can you make good decision-makers? Back then he was probably in a analogous place to where I am now … very driven, very anxious to prove himself.'

Origins and a Stubborn Nature

Fuchs’s motivation originates in 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 good enough,' he reveals. {'There are people who let that get the better of 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 prove that I can and put in the hard yards. The other thing about my make-up is: I’m quite stubborn. If I see promise, I’m going for it.'

Detailed Approach and the Fight for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and formerly ran Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs boots up his laptop to show statistics from a recent 2-2 draw, presenting a slide he presented to his players. {'The team hit numerous season highs,' he says, noting ball progression and statistics about penetrating defensive lines. Passing accuracy was recorded at 87%. {'Not satisfied with that … that needs to be in the mid-90s,' he insists. {'My first game, it was very long-ball, League Two football, but we want to be unique. I think a five-yard pass has a higher percentage to be successful than just launching it all the time.'

The broader numbers make bleak reading. Newport have managed three of 19 league matches and are without a victory 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 93rd-minute equaliser with 10 men secured a valuable point. {'We need to be a dominant side at home,' Fuchs says. {'It’s just not good enough, not even having a win. We need to construct a impenetrable home.'

In the Thick of It at Heart

By his own acknowledgement, Fuchs likes a challenge. {'What’s so bad with that?' He ended his playing career less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, likes being in the thick of things. {'I’m a component of the group. I’m still a player in here,' he remarks, pointing to his chest. {'At training I’m always participating in the boxes – two pannas already, yes! I want us to regard each other as one team. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re a collective, we’re striving towards this as one.'