Thomas Tuchel: 'We want to be contenders'
Dortmund - A new era began at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday with the club officially unveiling former 1. FSV Mainz 05 strategist Thomas Tuchel as their new head coach.
'A top, traditional club'
The 41-year-old talked up the "exceptional work" of his predecessor Jürgen Klopp and spoke highly about the Signal Iduna Park's unparalleled atmosphere, as well as touching on his ambitious plans for the future.
"Jürgen Klopp has done an exceptional job in the last seven years; he was more than just a coach here," Tuchel told journalists inside the club's packed-out press room. "The really fortunate thing is that Dortmund have coined their own style in recent years. Now we want to write our own chapter and we'll give everything to do so. I want an atmosphere characterised by commitment and free of egotism. We want to be proactive and dominate games."
Tuchel has been out of the spotlight for a year after stepping down at Mainz at the end of 2013/14, but the Krumbach native admits he found Dortmund's allure too hard to resist. "I needed to switch off at the start of my year off," he continued, "I'd had 14 straight years of coaching and needed time to reflect [...] It was a great wish of mine to coach a top club, a traditional club and a 'contender'. The atmosphere was a big part of my decision. I'm looking forward to the yellow terraces and the power and energy they conjure up here [...] We've got a little bit of catching up to do. We want to be contenders."
