Marco Rose’s Redemption

Lets be honest, the second half of 20/21 and the whole 21/22 season for Marco Rose was pretty, uninspiring.

In the latter year with Dortmund and with Erling Haaland- one of the best strikers in the world- he managed to fall out of the Champions League group stages, out of the first Europa League knock-out round and also in the round of 16 of the DFB Pokal against 2. Bundesliga side St Pauli. On top of this, they never really dominated in the league and under Dortmund, conceded the most goals (52) since 2007–08 (62), back when they were managed by Thomas Doll. It was no wonder why Sebastian Kehl and the rest of the BVB board decided to part ways.

But as the Bundesliga works, it wasn’t too long before Rose came back into employment, but this time he was “back home” in his childhood city of Leipzig and back under the Red Bull umbrella, in RasenBallSport (RB) Leipzig. In the moment of this decision, I questioned if it would go well, as with a more Red-Bull style of manager in Jesse Marsch, they had already failed and it felt that the East German team had moved on with more possessional-based play with the likes of Julian Nagelsmann and Domenico Tedesco before.

But, with Rose creeping up the table and managing to not lose in the first leg of their Round of 16 Champions League tie against Manchester City, it does seem he has been able to adapt something which he didn’t have at Dortmund, or even Borussia Mönchengladbach, and never really showed. And something especially from the latter, I thought, he didn’t have.