'Tuchel opened my eyes' - Mainz boss Svensson praises Chelsea manager's influence

Mainz coach Bo Svensson has explained how Thomas Tuchel influenced his career and said the Chelsea boss proved to be his inspiration to get into management.

Tuchel managed Mainz from 2009 to 2014, with Svensson featuring for the club for the entirety of the German coach's tenure.

Svensson took over as coach of his former club in 2021, leading them to a surprising eighth-place finish in the Bundesliga last season, as he now looks to do what Tuchel did before him by establishing Mainz as a regular in the top half of the table.

"It was a defining period for me as a coach, for my coaching career," Svensson said of the five years he spent under Tuchel.

"They were also defining years for me as a person because Thomas was just a different coach than everyone that I had before. He just saw the game in a different way.

"He trained in a different way and his whole approach was very ambitious but also just very innovative and that opened my eyes to a lot of things.

"Of course, he was the guy who opened my eyes and got me interested in the whole coaching thing, so that's a lot of inspiration."

Despite their similar paths that saw them both coach at the youth level before taking over Mainz, Svensson says he prefers not to compare himself with his former mentor, who has accomplished so much more as a coach.

"I think everybody who meets inspirational people in their life, they will take something from them and I've done the same," he said.

"Maybe you can take something from examples like training exercises or ways to approach a game or something.

"Of course, I've been influenced by that but I think it was also that's why it was also important for me to go through the whole youth academy and having these youth themes because you when