BERLIN (Reuters) – RB Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco was hailed as a saviour when he carried them from midtable to a Champions League spot last season and then crowned the run with victory in the German Cup for their first major title.
Just a few months later, however, the 36-year-old’s position is far more precarious, especially after Tuesday’s stunning 4-1 home loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in Europe’s elite club competition.
Tedesco took over midway through last season and took them from 11th to a fourth-place finish, but despite the addition of top striker Timo Werner they have won just one of their five league games this season and are sitting 11th once again.
They slumped to a 4-0 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the league last week and their European flop against the Ukrainians only added to Tedesco’s woes.
There has been no sign of their fluid, attacking style of play, while at the back they have coughed up eight goals in their last two games.
“It is really hard to find the right words for this after such a game, it’s difficult to describe it,” Tedesco said.
“It kind of reflects much of what we have gone through in the past weeks.”
A mistake by keeper Peter Gulacsi gifted Shakhtar the lead, and while Leipzig levelled in the second half the Ukrainians only needed a few seconds to go 2-1 up.
Two more goals late on finished off the Germans, who play Real Madrid next week.
First though they face Borussia Dortmund, joint leaders with Freiburg, in the Bundesliga on Saturday and Tedesco said he would not waste any time thinking about his own position.
“I am not thinking about it at all,” he said. “I am just disappointed after such a game. I am not thinking about all the other things around it. It will be a different day tomorrow and we will start focusing on Dortmund.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
