{Christian Fuchs: 'I'm Quite Determined. When I Spot Potential, I'm Doing It'|Ex-Leicester Star Christian Fuchs Opens Up on Newport County Challenge

'I would say that the likelihood of us turning the season around are lower than Leicester claiming the Premier League, so they are in our favor, right?' Christian Fuchs is discussing his fresh chapter as head coach of the League Two strugglers, and the monumental task of staving off a fall into non-league football. Here lies a challenge at the polar opposite of the spectrum of success, though that unbelievable title win in 2016 gave him far more than a winner's medal. {'It contributed to shifting my outlook a little bit ... it demonstrated that the unthinkable can be possible,' he remarks.

The Surprising Path to Rodney Parade

The natural place to start is: what brought Fuchs end up here? 'I guess that's the part that's unpredictable, right?' he says, letting out laughter. This remark acts as the 39-year-old's opening gambit and a clear sign of his engaging character across a colourful conversation. The discussion runs in different directions, from working under Thomas Tuchel and the former Leicester manager to the immediate requirement to find a barber in the area.

He sorts through some post on his desk. Among it is a note from a Leicester supporter offering encouragement, accompanied by a couple of professional photographs from that season. {'Young Fuchs,' he remarks, with a smile. Another package brings a hoard of old Panini stickers, one from an album celebrating Euro 2016, when he led Austria. A greeting from the Newport Supporters’ Club is given special attention. Things like this genuinely makes me very pleased,' he adds.

A Prior Encounter and a Funny Mistake

Until returning from North Carolina to take on his first job in frontline management last month, Fuchs’s previous visit to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester were on the end of a Newport giantkilling in the FA Cup third round. That day David Pipe duelled against Fuchs. {'He had the performance of his life,' Fuchs recalls. But when the official sheets dropped, an amusing error was discovered. {'You need to censor this,' Fuchs remarks. 'They got wrong my name – somehow a 'k' crept in in place of the 'h'. It is hilarious because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something nice.'

Lessons from The Tinkerman, Rodgers and Tuchel

His move to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 turned out to be a masterstroke. A couple of weeks later Leicester appointed Claudio Ranieri and what followed is legendary. The Italian joined the club in the middle of a pre-season camp in Austria and his hands-off approach worked wonders. {'When you look at Claudio you envision an older man, so experienced in the game, maybe a bit old school, but he’s so not,' Fuchs states. {'He just said he was going to observe training in Austria for the first week. He stayed out of it at all. After that week we had a meeting and he said: 'I’ve watched you for a week and I’m not going to modify anything.''

Fuchs cherishes experiences from Rodgers and Tuchel, under whom he worked while on loan at Mainz. {'He always thought: ‘How can I get extra out of the players? How can I push them mentally?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a major part of our methodology as well. How can you make good thinkers on the pitch? Back then he was probably in a analogous place to where I am now … very motivated, very eager to prove himself.'

Roots and a Stubborn Character

Fuchs’s determination originates in his early years in Neunkirchen. {'There are parallels to where we are now, because I was told when I was 11 years old that I would never be good enough,' he reveals. {'There are people who let that get the better of them or there are people who say: ‘Watch me, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You can't do this, you cannot do that.’ I’m going to show that I can and work my socks off. The other thing about my make-up is: I’m pretty stubborn. If I see promise, I’m doing it.'

Detailed Approach and the Battle for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and formerly ran Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs boots up his laptop to show data from a recent 2-2 draw, displaying a slide he presented to his players. {'The team hit numerous season bests,' he explains, highlighting ball progression and statistics about getting behind defensive lines. Passing accuracy was logged at 87%. {'Not satisfied with that … that needs to be in the mid-90s,' he insists. {'My first game, it was very direct, fourth-tier football, but we want to be unique. I think a five-yard pass has a higher chance to find its target than just launching it all the time.'

The overarching numbers paint grim reading. Newport have secured three of 19 league matches and are without a victory in eight in all competitions. By the time of their next home game, they will have not won a game at home for 273 days and have kept just two clean sheets in 26 matches this season. But a recent 93rd-minute equaliser with 10 men garnered a crucial point. {'We need to be a force at home,' Fuchs stresses. {'It’s just not acceptable, not even having a win. We need to build a fortress.'

In the Thick of It at Heart

By his own acknowledgement, Fuchs enjoys a challenge. {'What’s so bad with that?' He hung up his boots less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, enjoys being in the heart of the battle. {'I’m a component of the group. I’m still a player at heart,' he says, tapping his chest. {'At training I’m always participating in the boxes – two megs already, brilliant! I want us to view each other as one team. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re all in this together, we’re striving towards this together.'