Newly appointed RB Leipzig coach Martín Demichelis has deep Bayern Munich roots, having both played in Bavaria and coached there as the head of the second team. Now in charge of a rival club, Demichelis finds himself needing to manage expectations ahead of a task that will be anything but easy.
“We have to be honest — we can’t compete with Bayern yet [in the Bundesliga],” Demichelis said in remarks captured by Sport Bild (via @iMiaSanMia). “But the goal is to keep improving and get closer to Bayern.
RB Leipzig have already won the DFB-Pokal twice. We have to try to win it a third time.”
The acknowledgment is only fair — Bayern have only widened the gap in the last couple of seasons following Bayer Leverkusen’s surprising run at the Bundesliga title in 2023/24. But perhaps because Demichelis is in that optimistic phase, having just taken his post, he is cutting a notably less frustrated figure than Borussia Dortmund coach Niko Kovač, who has similarly pointed out the talent deficit but on much more dour terms.
Demichelis knows well just how fearsome a well-oiled Bayern machine can be, but in setting out an attainable near-term goal (the Pokal) as well as laying out a long-term target, he is charting out a reasonable path for RB Leipzig to follow.
Leipzig has been hit or miss in recent years, and the former Bayern II coach was a somewhat surprising hire. Let’s see what he can do.
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