The whole points of The Athletic is to provide more in depth and obscure content than you might get elsewhere, and in doing a long piece on Thomas Tuchel’s assistant Zsolt Low, they’ve really nailed it here.
Their piece is a really in depth feature on the coach’s career so far, but what we’re most interested in is how things work with Tuchel at Chelsea.
Low is there to push back against Tuchel’s ideas, as the piece explains:
“Low and fellow assistant Arno Michels are encouraged by Tuchel to challenge his viewpoint and provide constructive criticism, to question the head coach’s outlook and ensure he is never blinkered in his thinking. Low did the same under Hutter, Rangnick and Hasenhuttl, picking his moments to test the water and pose the right questions. To ask, “Hold on. Are we sure this is the way we want to go?””
All in all, the balance seems brilliant. Tuchel works his players hard and is serious without being scary, while Low is there to be a bit lighter, and also to tactically push back against his boss when he’s not sure he’s making the right move.
It seems likely his impressive CV will one day ensure he gets a management job of his own. For now, we’re just enjoying having him as an important member of our staff.
