The best manager you’ve never heard of: Bo Henriksen is another one off the FSV Mainz pipeline

FSV Mainz 05 are currently third in the Bundesliga, above huge German clubs such as RB Leipzig, Frankfurt, Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart. What makes matters more interesting is that just over a year ago, Mainz were sitting second from bottom - level on points with Darmstadt 98 who were at the very foot of the table.

I don’t think enough people are talking about how ludicrous of a turnaround this truly is. Although many of the top Bundesliga clubs haven’t been at the races this campaign, it still shouldn’t diminish the significance of what has been done at that club in the last 12 or so months. Mainz are on course to finish this season with their record number of points and might also clinch Champions League football for the first time in their history whilst having lost arguably their 3 best players in Brajan Gruda, Sepp van den Berg and Leanordo Barreiro and only really managing to replace the latter.

And this unprecedented success story should mainly be attributed to one man and one man only, manager Bo Henriksen. 

Let’s rewind 13 months. Where Mainz were just about managing to stay afloat in the German top division after managing to muster 1 win in their last 12 games and many fans had begun to come to terms with the fact that their team will be playing football in the Bundesliga 2 for the first time in 20 years. Die Nullfünfer hierarchy needed to take drastic actions in any hopes to resurrect the situation they found themselves in and that’s exactly what happened. After a 3-1 loss away to Stuttgart, fairly popular coach Jan Siewart was sacked and replaced with a manager who had never once coached in Germany before.

Though minimal, Henriksen’s coaching experience wasn’t completely desolate. The Danish manager had endured relatively successful spells at FC Zurich and FC Midtjylland prior to his appointment in Germany and the move to hire him was seen as a huge risk by many German fans. 

But Henriksen didn’t let this air of uncertainty stop him from silencing the doubters. After winning his first game against Augsburg, the Dane led his team on a run of form which saw Mainz eventually finish 13th - securing safety on the last day of the season with a 2-0 win against Wolfsburg. Now, Mainz have only built on the momentum from one of the greatest escapes we have seen in Europe for the last decade or so. 

Two of the best managers of the 21st century, Thomas Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp both made a name for themselves whilst managing at Mainz which saw them go on to achieve continental greatness. Henricksen has a better points per game ratio than both of them. And though he has managed less games than his two legendary predecessors, this is still nothing to be sniffed at. 

Henriksen hasn’t found his team 3rd in the Bundesliga because of ‘luck’. They deserve to be there with all metrics pointing towards the 3rd or 4th best team in the league. Mainz play fast and entertaining football with little emphasis on possession and a large focus on getting the ball up the pitch as quickly as possible in order to generate high-quality chances which has seen Mainz rank first in the Bundesliga for xG per shot.

Mainz are ferocious and fun to watch. In Henriksen’s first press conference at Mainz, he made his philosophy clear saying, “The most important thing for me is power, and that we play attacking football. But obviously if you want to play attacking football you need to have a good defence, you have to stand high”. And this has been evident throughout his time in Germany. 

There are no ‘wonderkids’ or ‘future superstars’ in this Mainz squad either, which makes Henriksen’s success even more commendable. This is being carried out with an extremely small transfer budget which saw Mainz only spend €10 million in the summer and a lack of real youth investment. The 50 year old has taken a pretty ‘average’ squad and turned them into a dangerous and intimidating side which are extremely tough to beat.

Mainz have the second best defence in Germany, behind Bayern and this demonstrates how Henriksen has been able to build a very well-functioning defensive and attacking team with limited resources at his disposal. His 3-4-2-1 formation is fluid and constantly being altered during games and depending on who Mainz are facing. They have used this to take points off Bayern, Frankfurt, Leipzig and Dortmund this season - exemplifying Henriksen’s ability to mix with the best of the best.

Mainz seem to have produced another coach who may go on to do wonderful things in Europe and although he lacks the ‘German-ness’ of both Tuchel and Klopp, Henriksen’s energy, charisma and play-style is proving to be deja-vu at the MEWA arena. If he stays at Mainz for a few more seasons, sky is truly the limit for one of the biggest underdog stories in recent times. But, if he leaves this and joins a bigger club in the summer, then said club has taken a huge step towards being extremely competitive in the near future. 

Everything Bo Henriksen has achieved so far has led me to believe that we are looking at another elite-potential coach to have earned their stripes at Mainz and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for both Henriksen and Die Nullfünfer.