New Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic reveals impact of time at RB Leipzig under watchful eye of Ralf Rangnick

Perth is a world away from the German city of Leipzig, but incoming Glory coach David Zdrilic is determined to bridge that gap through a common language: the world game. And if Zdrilic turns out to be the coaching mastermind The Shed End has forlornly hoped for for years, their own personal Jesus and Lisan al Gaib, Perth fans will have a certain Ralf Rangnick to thank. “He gave me the job, he hired me,” Zdrilic told The West Australian of his introduction into the European coaching world at RB Leipzig, and his introduction to Rangnick — the “godfather of gegenpressing” as he has been dubbed. For everything Zdrilic has learnt over a lengthy career as a youth and assistant coach across Germany, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Australia, it can be traced back to Rangnick as he begins his first senior coaching job. It is Perth where Zdrilic will carry on the legacy of Rangnick, the former Manchester United, Stuttgart and Schalke coach currently in vogue thanks to the performances of his Austria side at Euro 2024. As Austria prepare for the round of 16 having topped Group C ahead of France and The Netherlands, Zdrilic revealed he was still in contact with the 66-year-old, considered one of the most influential coaches of the present day. “Gegenpressing” was pioneered by Rangnick and popularised by Jurgen Klopp’s successful Borussia Dortmund and dominant Liverpool sides, and involves teams pressing opponents high up the pitch, suffocating space and collapsing passing lanes with the objective of winning the ball closer to the goal. It was to RB Leipzig, where Rangnick jumped between head coaching and director of football roles, Zdrilic was lured to in 2017, starting as an assistant in their youth set-up. “I learned so much more there; it was the art of coaching,” Zdrilic said. “Not just the philosophies, the art of all that stuff that goes around that which I just didn’t appreciate before I went there and it was so much more to it than I could have ever imagined.” Zdrilic spent time during his playing career in Germany, but his grasp of the language was put to the test from the moment he entered the club’s system, having to learn the vivid and varied philosophy outside of his native tongue. Throughout his three years in Leipzig loomed the presence of Rangnick, who instilled the tactical principles Zdrillic carries with him today. Rangnick’s gegenpressing manifesto is pressed into the DNA of RB Leipzig, and its sister clubs in Salzburg, New York and Bragantino in Brazil. “He was in charge of everything, the whole RB philosophy is Ralf Rangnick,” said Zdrilic. “That net was all of him and that philosophy ran through the veins of all the clubs. Everybody was learning the philosophy; it’s very detailed and you have to be able to implement it.” Unsurprisingly, he credits his crash-course coaching education in Leipzig as fundamental, carrying it with him at future stops as an assistant at Chicago Fire, Belgian outfit K.V. Oostende and Genoa in Italy’s top flight. “Everybody wants to press and have all the aspects of the game, but how do you do it? How do you implement it?” Zdrilic said. “It gave me the tools, the knowledge, the know-how to train it — It’s not just go and play it; you have to train it, you have to know the loads, how to manage all of that to produce that kind of football. “I’m lucky that one of the most influential people in my football career continued to be influential in my coaching career, gave me that opportunity to learn and I’m still in contact with him now, even when he’s at the Euro’s.” And so, Rangnick’s Australian disciple has reached Perth, pledging to deliver the high-octane, counter-pressing which has taken the football world by storm to the masses at HBF Park. He served as an assistant at Sydney FC last season and under head coach Ufuk Talay, the pair transformed a tepid, flickering Sky Blues into a finals team, and it did not go unnoticed, with Glory director of football Stan Lazaridis saying even before they were looking for a new coach, he had admired Sydney’s style. For Zdrilic it will not quite be a ‘CTRL-C, CTRL-V’ job with Perth, nor will it be overnight delight as he instills in the side a desire to hunt the ball in the crevices of the pitch; the intricacies of the system will likely not be embedded within his squad ahead of their first game, an Australia Cup play-off against Brisbane in late July. “You need the profile of player, that’s normal for any system, but you also need the buy-in and belief from the players and club,” Zdrilic said. “If you’re trying to implement something, you need certain tools and prerequisites to get it to come to life. “It’s always going to come down to quality of player and obviously the best I can do to implement the philosophy. “But generally, without know-how and all those things, you have at least a good base and foundation to be able to get the players into that position — because without that, it’s actually difficult. You can get caught out.”