Lars Leuenberger has been head coach of Fribourg-Gottéron since Sunday. At the Spengler Cup, he is trying to get to know his new team and introduce his system. His credo: organized chaos.
27.12.2024, 19:46
27.12.2024, 20:26
SDA
Lars Leuenberger has had some crazy days. Instead of a peaceful Christmas and a trip to Canada with his son, he is now back on the sidelines of a National League team. So far, quite successfully. On Monday he won in the championship in Zug, on Friday in the Spengler Cup 6:4 against Kärpät Oulu. In between lies a defeat on penalties against Dynamo Pardubice.
The call-up to the bench did not come as a complete surprise to the native of eastern Switzerland. "I have to expand a bit," he says in Davos. "I already had a signed contract as assistant coach in Freiburg for the coming season." The Swede Roger Rönnberg will then take over the reins at Gottéron, with whom Leuenberger has already had intensive discussions. "So I've already followed the team a bit." He was therefore the logical choice for the remainder of the transition season from the Christian Dubé era to Rönnberg. Since his release in Olten in January, he has "only" been a TV pundit.
More movement in the offensive zone
Leuenberger will therefore already be trying to implement Rönnberg's philosophy. The Spengler Cup is a good time to get to know his players. "We already worked with them yesterday and today and introduced new ideas or discussed individual tactics with them," he explained on Friday evening. One goal: "They should move in the offensive zone, understand that the defenders are not always on the blue line." Leuenberger laughs: "I want organized chaos, yes, you could say that."
Leuenberger likes what he has seen so far. "The team has shown a lot of character," says the 49-year-old from eastern Switzerland with a past as a player and now coach at SC Bern and Fribourg. In Zug, they trailed twice, against Oulu even three times and against Pardubice 0:2 until the final third. "In the last few weeks, Fribourg would probably have fallen apart after a 0:2," he believes.
Kevin Nicolet, who scored his first goal for the first team against Oulu at the age of 21, explains it this way: "The change of coach has brought a bit of a new dynamic." There is now a new line. "We know our potential and we know that it's now up to us to get stuck in."
Success as an "emergency nail"
Lars Leuenberger knows that he will be back in second place in six months' time. That's a difference to his time at Bern, when he was promoted on December 18, 2015 and became champion out of a difficult situation. So he has good experience as an "emergency nail".
With a grin, he says: "It will end the same way this time." However, he does not want this to be understood as a promise. In Freiburg, where they are as desperate as ever to win a title, they would erect a monument to him.
