FC St. Pauli are making waves in the Second Bundesliga right now.

The anti-establishment punk-outfit are on a historic 10-match winning streak with the youngest manager in European football at the helm.

This is their story!

++ THREAD EDITION ++ 🧵

Turn back the clock to November 12, 2022 🗓️

In the final match before the World Cup, FC St. Pauli draw 4:4.

After 17 matchdays, Die Kiezkicker are 15th in the league, & only outside of the relegation zone via goal difference.

Something needs to change…

December 6, 2022 🗓️

St. Pauli make the shocking decision to sack manager Timo Schultz.

After 20 years at the club - captaining the professional outfit and managing from the academy up to the first team - Schultz & St. Pauli are no more.

Where do they go from here?

December 23, 2022 🗓️

St. Pauli make a controversial appointment in the managerial position.

Fabian Hürzeler, former assistant to Timo Schultz, is appointed to lead the side for the foreseeable future.

What stands out?

Hürzeler is just 29-years old!

As the youngest manager in Germany’s top 3 divisions, it felt only natural for a level of concern to greet the appointment.

However, as the man himself mentioned during his first press conference,

“I am a young person, but not a young coach.”

And he isn't lying!

This is Hürzeler’s 9th year coaching!

⚫️Started at the FC Bayern youth academy
⚫️Moved into the Semi-pro game
⚫️Assistant roles in the U18 & U20 German NT
⚫️And finally, the step to St. Pauli!

This well-rounded coaching experience shaped Hürzeler as a coach today...

His tactical IQ and game intelligence are clearly born from his time at FC Bayern.

Hürzeler spent 10 years of his career there, rising through the youth system & coaching in the academy.

Being part of Bayern both as a player & as a youth team manager during the tactical revolution under Louis Van Gaal sowed the seeds for his devotion to positive possession & the proactive style of football that are still apparent in his St. Pauli side today.

If at FC Bayern Hürzeler established the necessary football IQ to thrive as a young manager, it was with FC Pipinsried in the amateur 5th tier that the young coach developed his personality & learned how to handle the different characters frequenting a senior dressing room.

This combination of being a tactically-astute student of the game [from Bayern] & having the ability to unite a club around his vision [ FC Pipinsried] is what now sets Hürzeler apart at such a young age.

So now that we know Fabian Hürzeler as a coach & personality, what sets him apart from his predecessor?

Probably the most significant difference between Timo Schultz’s football and that of Hürzeler’s is how they set St. Pauli up from a formational stand-point.

Whereas Schultz primarily operated with a compact midfield in a 4-1-3-2, Hürzeler has changed into a more flexible outlook with a starting shape best resembling a 3-4-2-1/3-4-3.

There are 2 key reasons why this change was necessary for St. Pauli’s new-found success.

1. Personnel Problem

Finishing in 5th place last season was a remarkable achievement for a club with a fairly average wage bill, however, over the long run, it also proved itself to be a double-edged sword.

6 players with over 1000 min. ended up leaving the club in the summer.

Particularly in attack this loss was felt, with the pair of Guido Burgstaller & Daniel Kofi-Kyereh departing for new challenges after combining for a remarkable 30 goals & 17 assists in the previous second-tier campaign.

Losing two vital players in the summer always looked like an impossible task, & so it has proved.

Whereas in the previous season, St. Pauli had scored 37 goals after 17 gameweeks, at the end of this year’s Hinrunde, they had managed only 23 goals!

The 3-4-3 setup has alleviated some of these issues.

St. Pauli’s wingbacks are in advanced goalscoring positions, & the central midfielders are now providing a goalscoring outlet with late runs into the opposition’s box.

Just watch Jackson "AIRvine" 🔥🇦🇺

https://twitter.com/0utswingers/status/1646870476805865474?s=20

2. Flexibility

Other than the additional goalscoring outlets, one of the most valuable elements of Hürzeler’s new tactical setup is how quickly St. Pauli can switch between different outlooks in order to confuse and counter an opponent's strengths.

Two players are key for this, the first being Eric Smith.

Before Hürzeler, Smith played over 80% of his minutes in defensive midfield.

But now, the 26-year-old Swede is vital in the centre of a back-3.

Smith's ability to step into midfield from his center-back starting position makes it impossible for opponents to press with conviction.

His presence alone means St. Pauli can easily adjust between the 3-4-3 & a 4-3-3 during the game.

Center-forward Lukas Daschner is also a key factor in confusing opponents with his movement.

Daschner is more than happy to drop deeper into attacking midfield & allow Connor Metcalfe & Oladapo Afolayan to invert into the vacated central spaces to form a strike partnership.

This slight readjustment can create a 3-5-2 formation for St. Pauli.

However, even more powerful is when Daschner's dropping-off is combined with Smith bursting into midfield. This returns St. Pauli to the 4-1-3-2 that worked for long stretches of Timo Schultz’s reign.

With numerous moving parts & an ability to change on the fly, Fabian Hürzeler’s St. Pauli have been incredibly difficult for opponents to adjust to, and to find a convincing tactical answer during gameplay.

Whereas the league eventually had answers for Schultz’s 4-1-3-2, the fact that Hürzeler can quickly revert into 3 to 4 different shapes throughout a match makes it almost impossible to completely nullify the various different forms of danger St. Pauli can present in possession.

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