During this international break, The Athletic is publishing a series of profiles on highly rated managers from across Europe. Porto’s Francesco Farioli started us off before we moved to Spain with Rayo Vallecano’s Inigo Perez. We examined promotion-chasing Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough, then jumped over to Serie A to look at how Cesc Fabregas was performing with Como and to dig into 30-year-old Carlos Cuesta at Parma.
Next up is Hoffenheim’s Christian Ilzer.
Hoffenheim were in desperate need of a spark when they were hovering above the relegation zone in late 2024.
In former electrician Christian Ilzer, they found the man to provide it. Barely 18 months after his arrival, the Bundesliga side are fighting for a Champions League place with a clear, aggressive identity that has helped them soar to fifth place.
From starting as a fitness coach to being the main man in the dugout in the amateur and professional game, the Austrian has worked his way to the top of European football through sheer hard work and determination, with persistent knee injuries curtailing his playing career before he trained as an electrician and briefly pursued a career outside of sport.
Following a series of roles as a player-coach, assistant and caretaker manager in the early 2010s, Ilzer’s first notable managerial role saw him return to second-division TSV Hartberg in 2017, guiding them into the Austrian Bundesliga for the first time in their history.
A move within his homeland to Wolfsberger AC followed in 2018, with further history made after Ilzer led them to Europa League qualification in his only season at the club.
A quieter period at Austria Wien in 2019 was followed by an incredible spell at Sturm Graz, where Ilzer helped to end Red Bull Salzburg’s 10-year winning run upon their league title win in 2023-24. Alongside their Austrian Cup victory that season, Sturm Graz achieved their first domestic double in 25 years.
Doubts about the scalability of Ilzer’s work outside Austria may once have been valid, but success has followed him. After answering Hoffenheim’s call, the 48-year-old looks set to beat a club-record 16 Bundesliga wins within a single season in his first full campaign in charge.
Alongside sporting director Andi Schicker and technical director Paul Pajduch, Ilzer has transformed the playing squad.
Last summer’s departures of Anton Stach (Leeds United), Tom Bischof (Bayern Munich) and Florian Grillitsch (Braga) made way for Leon Avdullahu (Basel), Albian Hajdari (Lugano), Wouter Burger (Stoke City), alongside the return of Fisnik Asllani (Elversberg) to bring a youthful injection to Hoffenheim’s core and allow Ilzer to implement his style of play. He has proven that he is a coach who gets results fast.
The foundation of that transformation lies in Hoffenheim’s relentless work rate. Using data from SkillCorner, no Bundesliga side averages more sprints, high-intensity runs, or distance covered per 90 minutes than Ilzer’s.
This has been most notable out of possession, where Hoffenheim’s 5.8 regains in the attacking third per 90 minutes is the highest in the Bundesliga and second only to Paris Saint-Germain across Europe’s top five leagues.
As a measure of pressing intensity, their 9.8 opponent passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) is the lowest — ie, most intense — in Germany’s top division.
As shown below, those numbers are all the more stark when comparing Hoffenheim’s metrics — relative to Europe’s top five leagues — over multiple seasons. The spike in the “Intensity” (95 out of 99) is coupled with Ilzer’s side being more likely to squeeze the pitch more often (High line, 70 out of 99).
As a consequence, Hoffenheim are conceding fewer chances than they have done in their previous six seasons (Chance prevention, 47 out of 99).
A perfect example of Hoffenheim’s hunger to regain possession is shown in their clash with Wolfsburg in March. After midfielder Burger loses the ball and Wolfsburg look to spring forward, Dzenan Pejcinovic and Christian Eriksen are quickly surrounded by four Hoffenheim players, who counterpress immediately to shut down any threat.
After winning the ball back, Hoffenheim use the disruption from this transition to attack quickly, with Asllani coming inside before shooting from distance.
“Whenever we have the ball, we want to speed things up. When we don’t have the ball, (we want to) quickly put the opponent in possession under pressure so we can win the ball back,” Ilzer told the Bundesliga’s official website in December.
“You need a team that loves to defend just as much as you need a team with great creativity that can find a way through an opponent that defends well.”
That breathless style out of possession can be matched on the ball, especially as Hoffenheim are not afraid to spring forward at pace or hit a direct ball. Versatility is crucial to Ilzer’s side in possession, alternating between 4-2-3-1, 4-2-2-2 and back-three formations.
The principles are grounded in a secure midfield base with multiple passing options during build-up. Plenty of third-man combinations and up-back-and-through wall passes are used to great effect, with off-ball movement crucial for shifting the opposition and creating space.
The role of 25-year-old Burger is a great example of this, with the former Stoke midfielder starting deeper before springing forward as a No 8 who can crash into the penalty area. Burger’s third-man run was crucial in unlocking the opponent’s shape during their equaliser against Eintracht Frankfurt in January, before driving forward to cross for Max Moerstedt to finish.
Crossing has been a successful attacking tactic this season. Across the top five leagues, no side has a better open-play crossing accuracy than Hoffenheim’s 28 per cent — their 12 goals via crosses is the joint-highest in Europe.
Part of that wide threat comes from former West Ham United full-back Vladimir Coufal, who will frequently push forward to support the attack on the right, allowing midfielders to drive into the penalty area.
As shown below against Freiburg, Avdullahu, the 22-year-old Kosovo international, will often be the midfield pivot, forming a diamond shape during build-up, allowing Coufal to take a higher starting position on the right.
With Burger drifting forward again, Hoffenheim were then able to outnumber Freiburg’s defensive line with five bodies. Andrej Kramaric — the former Leicester City striker who has become a cult hero in attack after 10 seasons with the club — can be seen pushing onto the last line, but he has had the freedom to drop deeper to link midfield and attack.
The skill sets of Ilzer’s squad are improved by the system they are playing in. “The task is to improve the individual players and then harness their potential for the benefit of the team,” Ilzer told reporters in March.
“Over this season, we’ve managed to improve our players’ market values. The aim is to continue focusing on building a strong team as a result of individual development.”
It is pertinent for Ilzer to highlight the development of his squad’s value when assessing his job. Using data from Transfermarkt, we can compare a team’s points per game compared with their perceived squad value, relative to the league average. Across Europe’s top seven leagues, Ilzer’s side emerge as one of the statistical outliers.
Only French side Lens have overperformed their squad value more in the dataset, with Pierre Sage’s side pushing PSG for the Ligue 1 title.
Things remain tight at the top of the Bundesliga table, too. Below Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, four teams are battling it out for the remaining two Champions League spots, with seven points separating third and sixth place with seven games to go.
Hoffenheim’s 5-0 humbling by RB Leipzig saw them drop to fifth, with a patchy run meaning the international break has come at a good time as they bid for a second Champions League campaign in their history — their first since 2018-19 under Julian Nagelsmann.
Ilzer took Sturm Graz to the group phase of the Champions League in 2024-25 before moving to Germany. Now he has the opportunity to repeat the feat and pit himself against Europe’s best head coaches once more.
