RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig forward Timo Werner has committed his future to the Red Bulls, amid reported interest of Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

As shared by the club's official Twitter account, he ruled out a summer move:

"I'm staying in Leipzig." 🔴⚪

Timo #Werner ended all speculation about a possible transfer this summer after #VfBRBL today 🙌 pic.twitter.com/2Hibq5TgPN

— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) March 11, 2018

Per Goal's Seth Vertelney, both Premier League clubs, as well as Bayern and Real, were interested.

Per Vertelney, he previously told FourFourTwo he would like to play in the Premier League one day, but he needs to improve his level of English first: "Playing in the Premier League is a dream for me. I would like to play for two or three clubs, and Manchester United are one of those clubs. But probably not in the next few years—later, when my English is a little bit better! I’m very comfortable at RB Leipzig, though."

The 22-year-old has scored 10 Bundesliga goals this season, to go with three in the UEFA Champions League and three in the UEFA Europa League. Here are some of his highlights, as part of a short profile:

The Stuttgart product joined RB in 2016 and became a full Germany international a year later. He's arguably been at his best on the international stage, winning the Golden Boot at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Leipzig's rise in German football has been meteoric, backed by the deep pockets of Red Bull. The club are battling for a spot in next year's Champions League and figure to be a regular part of Europe's top competition for years to come.

RB will already lose star midfielder Naby Keita to Liverpool in the summer, so they'll work hard to keep Werner and their other top talents at the club for now.    

It was the moment that got it all started. With time running out, substitute Oliver Burke sped down the right, and with Marcel Schmelzer retreating, he fired in a fizzing, low cross. Ghosting into the gap between Marc Bartra and the retreating Sebastian Rode to smash the ball into the top of the net, past goalkeeper Roman Burki, was his fellow substitute Naby Keita.

That dramatic end to the first top-flight match at Red Bull Arena got RB Leipzig up and running in the Bundesliga. At the time, Keita's winner against Borussia Dortmund in just the second match of the season felt like it might be a campaign highlight. In retrospect, it barely even hinted at what Leipzig, and Keita, would go on to achieve.

That six-minute cameo from the Guinea midfielder was his Bundesliga debut for the club, having arrived from Red Bull Salzburg earlier that summer, but the uninitiated would soon find out Keita was no late-impact fox in the box. On the contrary. He was a player Leipzig would go on to build their extraordinary season around.

Many are still learning about Keita. Incorrectly billed as a purely defensive midfielder when Liverpool began their chase for him earlier in 2017, his full palette is becoming clearer to a wider audience as people figure out why Reds boss Jurgen Klopp was so desperate to get him. Keita can excel in every area; he can tackle and screen, yet he can also find the passes to unpick a defence and conjure an accomplished finish himself.

Leipzig, trying to cope with the dual difficulties of managing a Champions League campaign and a Dortmund side that has started with considerably more rhythm than last term, need Keita at his best as they prepare to visit Signal Iduna Park on Saturday. It was a fixture fraught with difficulty on and off the pitch for Leipzig back in February, as per the Guardian.

Quite whether Keita is in the fettle to do that is open to question. Leipzig's fans have, frankly, been spoiled by his level of consistency since his arrival, but if there is a hint of second-season syndrome, some among their number believe it has a lot to do with their key midfielder's ups and downs in the opening weeks of the campaign.

"He played really well in the first few matches," Simon Fries told Bleacher Report. "He did his usual excellent dribbling and was good for the team. He makes the difference. Unfortunately, he got a red card against Borussia Monchengladbach. Then he was injured in his first CL match [against AS Monaco], and then the one against Besiktas was not his best match."

Keita could have easily seen red again at the Vodafone Arena too had Sergei Karasev not been so lenient, with Fries describing the referee as "gracious."

His fellow Leipzig supporter Benjamin Heine concurs, with the added focus on Keita clear. "The opponents know about his quality now," he told Bleacher Report. "So he loses his temper very quickly and can get carried away, which doesn't do him or the team any good."

While Keita is conscious of the importance of his role, he has not quite hit the heights of last season. "All in all, he is not as good as he was last year," said Fries. "Yet."

It's an impression that is echoed among Bundesliga fans—and from the perspective of Saturday's opponents, as The Yellow Wall podcast host Stefan Buczko told Bleacher Report: "Keita has been far less influential for Leipzig than last season thus far. Other than his wonder strike against Hamburg, there aren't too many positive actions that spring to mind. On the contrary, it looks as though he has lost self-control."

As Buczko pointed out, Keita followed his red card against Gladbach and lucky escape at Besiktas with another sending off in a recent World Cup qualifier after opening the score for Guinea against Tunisia. "It's a worrying trend," Buczko said.

There is no panic, though. Leipzig's supporters will give Keita the time to rediscover his best, with confirmation of his move to Liverpool generally met with understanding rather than opprobrium.

"I'm glad about it," Fries said. "It was clear that he would go next year, and [by agreeing the deal early], we get way more money. I think Keita is a loss for Leipzig, but Liverpool is his dream club, and I respect this."

Heine added that the Reds' pursuit and eventual sealing of such a big deal is, in fact, a huge compliment to the club, saying: "It's great that Jurgen Klopp has done everything to get Naby to Liverpool."

They expect that the big occasion might bring the best out of Keita on Saturday. "My feeling tells me that he will deliver a really good game because he wants to give back to the club and us fans," Heine said.

That would be making good on the promise the 22-year-old made in his statement to Liverpool's official website announcing his transfer next summer, when he promised to give everything "until the final whistle in my final appearance" (via Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph).

"I expect that he will play as well as he did against HSV," Fries said. "With Dortmund on the top of the table right now, hopefully Keita can score like last year or provide an assist. I think we'll play in a more counter-attacking way against BVB, so we need Keita in pressing and in giving the ball quickly to our fast strikers."

That is exactly the role in which Dortmund fear him. "Keita is lethal in midfield," Buczko warned. "Because he can find solutions under pressure, and BVB can be quickly exposed once they lose a battle in central midfield. Right now, there is little to suggest that Dortmund have the tools to stop Keita if he is on a roll—nor that [manager Peter] Bosz would adjust his tactical approach to minimise his threat."

Keita's Leipzig swansong won't be defined solely by Saturday's game. "Whether we win or draw, he will be very important to us, and he will be very important this year, whether in the Champions League, DFB-Pokal or in the Bundesliga," Leipzig supporter Sebastian Dorenburg said.

As with so many of the other headline stars looking to influence the upcoming big games, Keita will have to dig deep to produce something special after a long week of international action. What is clear is after February's ordeal, there are few places Leipzig fans would find sweeter for him to hit the heights once again.

RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner reportedly requested to be substituted during his team's UEFA Champions League defeat to Besiktas on Tuesday because of the incredible noise generated by the Turkish fans. 

According to the Telegraph, despite wearing earplugs, the 21-year-old could be seen covering his ears to protect himself from the remarkable atmosphere and had to be withdrawn after little more than half an hour with "hearing issues."

Manager Ralph Hassenhutl said: "It is impossible to prepare your team for an atmosphere like this. There was a deafening noise [and] at the start of the game we were a bit affected."

Ryan Babel and Anderson Talisca fired Besiktas to a 2-0 victory in what was Leipzig's first away match in the Champions League.

Besiktas player Adriano provided a sample of the atmosphere after the game as the fans celebrated:

Congrats to the team for the fantastic display. And to all of you amazing fans: you are the heart of Besiktas! ♥️⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/GX8ijQnd2T

— Adriano Correia (@AdrianoCorreia6) September 27, 2017

The Sun Football provided a photo of Werner receiving his earplugs from the touchline during the match:

Bizarre scenes as Timo Werner substituted after 31 minutes due to Besiktas fans https://t.co/mhokbvs29Y pic.twitter.com/bnRf8YySbU

— The Sun Football ⚽ (@TheSunFootball) September 27, 2017

According to Bild's Stefan Krause (h/t The Sun's Toby Gannon), he had "circulatory problems" and dizziness, and Turkish outlet CapaMag Spor quoted Werner as saying: "I have never seen such an atmosphere in my life. I could not focus on the match. I asked for a headset, and it did not help either. I still do not feel well."

Leipzig's English Twitter account also commented on the noise levels:

Not only are we now behind, but we're pretty sure we've got tinnitus too. Mawp.#ExpeditionEuropa #UCL #BJKRBL 1-0 pic.twitter.com/YsruTvR1ej

— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) September 26, 2017

Turkish clubs have long been known for generating some of the most intense atmospheres in European football, and this latest evidence only serves to confirm that.

Given the fans were able to nullify their opponents' biggest threat, it will hardly be surprising if it's even more heightened during their next home match in the Champions League.

RB Leipzig’s sporting director Ralf Rangnick has hit out at the people surrounding midfielder Naby Keita, saying the player has been influenced as Liverpool stand by to pounce. 

According to Ed Aarons of the Guardian, regarding Liverpool's two rejected bids for Keita, Rangnick said: "A whole village in Guinea or somebody from their entourage tells the players why they must do something right away."

Per Aarons, Keita had previously told the club that he was eager to move to Anfield.

Keita has been a long-term target of Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp, with the German offering £66 million for the services of the 22-year-old.

Per Aarons, Rangnick's full comments were rather scathing as he targeted Keita and Emil Forsberg's immediate circles:

"There should be someone who points them into the right direction. The boys themselves are not the problem here. It is their surroundings. ... I can’t blame the players. I expect them to play for us next season. Both are extraordinary players who make the difference for our team."

Former Guinea international Kamil Zayatte said he thought Rangnick's comments were fueled by racism (via Aarons):

Former Guinea captain and Hull player Kamil Zayatte accuses Ralf Rangnick of racism over his #Keita comments https://t.co/HOGkjqA0ND

— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) July 26, 2017

Keita has developed into one of the finest young midfielders in Europe, but Rangnick's words will now be under the spotlight as his club attempt to hold on to the African prodigy.

RB Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuttl reportedly called off a training session on Monday after a dangerous tackle from Liverpool target Naby Keita on team-mate Diego Demme. 

According to Bild (h/t Luke Brown of The Independent), Demme was left "screaming" after the challenge and left the field with his knee bandaged. Hasenhuttl is said to have demanded an apology from the Guinea international, and Keita agreed to.

Mirror Football later shared a photo of the two players showing no ill will after the incident:

No harm done! RB Leipzig duo Naby Keita & Diego Demme still best pals despite training ground clash https://t.co/nGckpcUWK9 pic.twitter.com/8rLVJ5k0Hw

— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) July 24, 2017

As noted by Brown, the Reds have been linked with a big-money move for Keita, although it's suggested they are unlikely to sign him this summer.

As we can see in this clip from Sport1 (h/t Read Liverpool) Keita and Demme tangled before the former clattered into his midfield partner, sparking an angry reaction from team-mates:

🎥 | Full video of Naby Keita reacting angrily to a tackle in training

Credit (@SPORT1 ) pic.twitter.com/ryHoStycVJ

— Read Liverpool (@ReadLiverpoolFC) July 24, 2017

According to Sky Sports News' Kaveh Solhekol, Demme has been left with a "bruised knee, but his meniscus and ligaments are fine."

It has been reported by Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph that after multiple bids for the midfielder, Liverpool are ready to renew their interest next summer. Keita is said to be keen to make the move to Anfield.

In the summer of 2018, a clause will reportedly be activated allowing the player to move on for £48 million. Bascombe stated the Reds have already had offers of £57 million and £66 million turned down for the Leipzig star.

Keita shone in the Bundesliga in 2016-17 for the promoted side, helping the team secure a superb second-place finish and UEFA Champions League football for the upcoming season. 

RB Leipzig have completed the signing of Bruma from Galatasaray, it was confirmed on Wednesday.

The Bundesliga side announced via their official Twitter account that Bruma inked a five-year deal with the club. The winger's contract with his previous employers was set to expire at the end of the 2017-18 season.

Bruma has been in impressive form for the Turkish side this term and had been linked with plenty of clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and West Bromwich Albion, per A Bola (h/t Lucas Sposito of Sport Witness).

Here's a look at what the 22-year-old can offer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3cUvUZpis

The Portugal youth international was tipped for the top from a young age, having impressed coming through the youth system at Sporting CP.

Bruma made his debut for the senior side in 2013, although he was snapped up by Galatasaray in the same year. However, he initially failed to make an impact, and in the 2015-16 season he was sent on loan to Real Sociedad to get some minutes.

Although he was hit and miss in La Liga, the time on the pitch helped Bruma refine some areas of his game, and he started the 2016-17 campaign in the form of his life.

This term he's found some composure in the final third, with 11 goals and six assists in Super Lig play.

RB Leipzig head coach Ralph Hasenhuttl will be delighted to have got his man, but there's work to do for the coaching staff. Bruma has so many natural gifts and the capability to alter the course of a match in an instant. However, he'll need to work harder at Red Bull Arena than he has done in his career so far to improve and make significant contributions defensively.

Having looked like he may fail to live up to his potential, that challenge is something Bruma should relish as he seeks to become a better footballer. RB Leipzig supporters will hope his impressive recent development continues in their colours.

The Bundesliga, for so long the epitome of footballing self-assurance and sometimes self-righteousness, isn't so comfortable in its own skin right now.

Supporters still swill beer while swaying in masses of choreographed unity, having paid less for their tickets than most Premier League fans pay to park their car at the ground, but look at the top of the league table and there is an anomaly. 

RB Leipzig are that anomaly. Having won seven straight games, they hold a three-point lead over Bayern Munich and all the rest at the peak of the German top flight.

That in itself is not especially revelatory. The Bundesliga has had shock champions before, most recently in 2009, when Wolfsburg lifted the title. Stuttgart's triumph in 2007 was also a surprise.

It's how they got there that rankles. RB Leipzig only won promotion to the Bundesliga in May, but they were already renowned by the time they played their first-ever top-flight game this season. They are the most hated club in Germany. A blot against an otherwise pristine copybook, as it is widely seen. 

The club was only formed in 2009 when Austrian energy drink company Red Bull acquired the playing licence of German fifth-tier club Markranstadt. League rules in the country prevent commercialisation of certain aspects of a club, like its badge or name. RB Leipzig—Rasenballsport Leipzig to give them their official name, Red Bull Leipzig to give them the name everyone knows them by—found a way to bend those rules.

This commercialisation, of course, goes directly against the grain of German football's identity. The so-called "50-plus-one" rule stipulates that clubs must hold a majority of their own voting rights. Only specific investors who have been involved with a certain club for more than a 20-year period can apply for an exception to the 50-plus-one rule. 

This deters outside investors from entering the German game, but RB Leipzig found a way to get around this rule. The majority of their memberships—which cost €1,000 a year—are held by Red Bull employees and associates. Their critics say they have found a way to corrupt German football's spirit.

Their on-the-field exerts have seen them called the Leicester City of the Bundesliga, but German football fans balk at such a suggestion. Leicester's story of triumph was a fairytale, a modern-day David versus Goliath. RB Leipzig have instead, as so many see it, circumvented the rules the Bundesliga holds so dearly in order to get an advantage on the competition. In this instance, David is cheating to get the better of Goliath. 

So could this ever happen in England? Recent reports suggest Red Bull is looking to buy an English club, with RB Leipzig's director of sport Ralf Rangnick taking in games at Chelsea, Charlton and Brentford, as per Charles Sale of the Daily Mail. Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke once derided RB Leipzig as just a vehicle "to sell cans of soda,” as per Reuters (via Eurosport), but now that vehicle could stop off in England.

English football doesn't quite possess a culture of anti-commercialism like German football does, and so Red Bull might find a more hospitable environment. Football Association, Premier League and English Football League rules are a lot less stringent than they are in Germany, for starters, making it easier for a club to be moulded as a reflection of a brand.

There would be a backlash, undoubtedly, if Red Bull did buy out a club in the Premier League or English Football League, but would it face the same nationwide opposition it has in Germany? 

As well as RB Leipzig, Red Bull owns clubs in Austria, Ghana, Brazil and the United States. It's the latter that provides the most compelling case.

In New York, Red Bull has long been protested against in its ownership of the city's original MLS franchise. Unlike in Germany, the Red Bulls are free to wear the company logos on their shirt and in their crest, with the team's cherished "MetroStars" name unashamedly replaced with the brand name of an energy drink. Nothing was in place to protect them as has protected Leipzig, to a certain extent.

A certain section of supporters still turn up to New York Red Bulls home games, at the undoubtedly stunning stadium the company built for the club in Harrison, New Jersey, wearing MetroStars colours. They will never be fully comfortable with the way the soul of the franchise was so readily sold to a brand, but protests and unrest have faded in recent years. It is, after all, difficult to protest a winning team with too much ferocity.

The New York Red Bulls have finished top of the Eastern Conference regular season standings for two years in succession, with the Harrison club now considered a formidable force in MLS. They still haven't won the championship—something that hangs heavily round the neck of everyone at the club—but their organisation and strategy cannot be faulted. Red Bull runs a good football team.

It would appear to be the case at Leipzig, too. While the core structure of the club is controversial to say the least, very few can find fault with the sporting aspect of how RB Leipzig have been guided through four tiers in the space of just five years.

Their transfer strategy has seen them shrewdly sign some of the brightest young talents in Germany and across Europe—like Oliver Burke from Nottingham Forest. In one isolated sense, they are the archetypal Bundesliga club.

In England, such success and transfer-market nous would likely appease any fanbase disgruntled by the hypothetical Red Bull takeover of their club. Supporters in England have already conceded to the ways of capitalism, with the Premier League now a global brand as much as it is a football division.

Of course, English football isn't quite the commercial free-for-all it's frequently painted as. Pete Winkelman, chairman of the country's most-hated club, MK Dons, who infamously moved from Wimbledon to Milton Keynes in 2003, would attest to that. However, English football would accommodate a Red Bull-owned club more readily than most countries. 

With English football more eager than most to sell itself as billboard space, counting out very little as off limits for sponsors, it would be a natural, if somewhat sad, progression if that were to one day extend to the name and identity of a club itself.

Red Bull Chelsea, Red Bull Charlton or Red Bull Brentford might seem a fanciful notion, but it could very quickly become feasible.

Pigs may well fly before it happens, but keep in mind how a certain energy drink gives you wings.

For outsiders, a curious facet of the Bundesliga post-match ritual is the joint press conference given by the two teams' coaches. It makes sense, though. Teams and their bosses have all week to make their plans and rehearse their best moves, but on matchday, they don't exist in isolation. It's about the dynamic between the two.

That symbiosis was keenly felt after RB Leipzig's win at Freiburg on Friday night. The pair had been Bundesliga 2 rivals last year, and Freiburg even pipped Leipzig to the title by a five-point margin, having won the corresponding fixture 2-1 back in March, but there is a considerable gulf between them now.

Leipzig's stylish 4-1 win at Schwarzwald-Stadion was their seventh in succession in the Bundesliga.

So when the questions had come to an end on Friday night, it was with visible sincerity that Freiburg's coach Christian Streich embraced his opposite number, Leipzig's Ralph Hasenhuttl. The latter's achievements, having previously done what Streich is currently attempting by guiding newly promoted Ingolstadt to safety last season, must already be regarded as outstanding, even if we're not yet in December.

Hasenhuttl should, theoretically, be in the same boat as Streich, seeking to stabilise a top-flight new boy, but he and his team are already way past such modest aims. Unbeaten and three points clear at the top after 12 games (and the lead could have been more, had Bayern Munich not been so fortunate to close out a win against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday), Leipzig's is the best start to a season by a promoted side in the competition's 53-year history.

With Bayern fighting to hold on to their coattails, their Austrian coach is emerging as something of a national celebrity. He was the main guest on ZDF's Das Aktuelle Sportstudio, the public access show that rounds up the Bundesliga highlights and reaction every week, on Saturday night and was warmly received.

Hasenhuttl was largely happy and relaxed but started to look a little uncomfortable when presenter Katrin Muller-Hohenstein introduced a brief recorded segment on how Leipzig have been received on the road.

So we saw the (pixelated) severed bull's head that Dynamo Dresden fans launched towards the pitch when the pair met in the DfB Pokal. We saw the Hamburg supporters' mass sit-down protest in the street outside the entrance to their Volksparkstadion. We were also shown images of the paint-stained team bus as they were "welcomed" to Leverkusen by local fans a fortnight ago.

The coach, and his players, have had to get used to this, fielding questions not on their style of play but on the reaction of the German football public at large to their rise to the top table. The club was only formed in its current guise in 2009 by Austrian drinks giant Red Bull, armed with the playing licence of fifth-tier club Markranstadt, rebranding it in its own image and outlining an ambition to reach the top flight in the space of eight years.

This boldly, unapologetically corporate construct is simply unpalatable to many German fans and even some of the major figures inside the game, with Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke calling Rasenballsport Leipzig (league rules forbid the changing of a club's name to that of a sponsor's, so they have gone for matching the initials) just a vehicle "to sell cans of soda" (as per Eurosport.com).

Many of Dortmund's most prominent supporter groups declined to go to their side's away game in Leipzig in September, the new boys' first home match of the season.

That Leverkusen fans have taken part in these vehement protests is notable. Many clubs' supporters regard Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, former workers' teams who are exempt from the 50+1 member supporters' ownership rule, as a bit artificial. Yet Leipzig's model is a step further on from those two or from Hoffenheim, who started from a similarly lowly rung on the German league ladder before the plentiful investment of software billionaire Dietmar Hopp.

This isn't about funding—it's about identity and tradition. Yet the uncomfortable truth for the vocal majority is that Leipzig look like they're here to stay. They are emerging as a credible challenger at the top of the Bundesliga far more quickly than anybody anticipated.

Red Bull have redoubled their efforts as things have begun to take off. Five players—including Naby Keita, who scored the winner against Dortmund and rattled in a superb opener at Freiburg—have been moved from Red Bull Salzburg to the Leipzig arm of the operation since summer 2015, underlining a re-ordering of Red Bull's sporting priorities.

Speaking to The European Football Show on TalkSport 2 back in August, Salzburg coach Oscar Garcia (formerly of Brighton and Watford) told listeners that the Austrian champions were now looking at a more youth-focused model, rather than anchoring their squad development plans on significant levels of investment. Garcia is a horse for a course, brought in for his knowledge as a graduate of Barcelona's La Masia academy.

They fielded three teenagers in the starting lineup of their Champions League play-off with Dinamo Zagreb this season, as they missed out on qualifying for the group stages by three minutes. That Salzburg are having to get by on less is a theme of local consternation.

Not that Leipzig's squad is exactly packed with pensioners. Their model—and the sporting group's plan as a whole, with sporting director Ralf Rangnick having also moved from Austria to Germany, coaching the team to promotion last term before moving back upstairs—is based on youth.

According to recent figures from CIES Football Observatory published here, only Toulouse, Nice and the Bundesliga's own Leverkusen have a squad with a lower average age than Leipzig's among Europe's top five leagues (average age 24.6).

Accordingly, they run more than anybody else in the Bundesliga, a collective 116.4km per game (as per Bundesliga.com). Their squad-construction model has much in common, in fact, with the way in which Hoffenheim built their squad, buying up some of the best young talent available. After their promotion in 2008, they brought in the likes of Luiz Gustavo, Marvin Compper (incidentally Leipzig's current captain) and later Roberto Firmino.

Besides Keita, Leipzig's biggest signings have been 19-year-old Oliver Burke, at €17 million from Nottingham Forest, and Timo Werner, now 20 but who made his debut for Stuttgart in 2013 at 17 years and four months old, making him the youngest first-teamer in the club's history.

Werner had become stuck at a dysfunctional club. Now liberated, at a club with a great coach, excellent facilities and a plan to grow, he looks the part again and has scored seven times already in the Bundesliga after his brace at Freiburg.

Burke has only been needed as a (very effective) pinch-hitter from the bench, starting just once. Midfielder Emil Forsberg, who has already scored five and laid on another seven, is a further example of sensible recruitment rather than wanton spending. 

In another parallel with Hoffenheim, Leipzig go to Bayern in the last match before the winter break. In December 2008, only Luca Toni's stoppage-time winner denied Hoffenheim the title of winter champions. After Vedad Ibisevic's serious injury during winter break training, it all fell apart for the team then—interestingly—coached by Rangnick.

One feels that this Leipzig team aren't quite as reliant on one figure. Hasenhuttl and his coaching staff posed for a group selfie on the pitch after the win at Freiburg. It was a quietly touching moment, but one hopes they have plenty of memory left in the camera. It could just be the tip of the iceberg.