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'I reckon that the odds of us transforming our fortunes are less than Leicester claiming the Premier League, so they are in our favor, right?' Christian Fuchs is reflecting on his fresh chapter as head coach of Newport County, and the monumental task of preventing a drop into non-league football. This represents a challenge at the polar opposite of the spectrum of success, though that fairytale title win in 2016 provided him with a great deal more than a Premier League trophy. {'It assisted in altering my outlook a little bit ... it showed that the unthinkable can be achievable,' he notes.

The Surprising Path to Rodney Parade

The obvious place to start is: what brought Fuchs find himself here? 'That's the aspect of the story that defies logic, wouldn't you say?' he states, letting out laughter. It is the 39-year-old's initial statement and a clear sign of his engaging character across a colourful conversation. The discussion travels in various tangents, from playing for Thomas Tuchel and the former Leicester manager to the pressing need to find a barber in the area.

He opens some mail on his desk. There is a letter from a Leicester supporter wishing him well, paired with a couple of professional photographs from that memorable year. {'Young Fuchs,' he remarks, grinning. Another package brings a stash of old collector's items, one from an album commemorating Euro 2016, when he skippered Austria. A card from the Newport Supporters’ Club has pride of place. 'Stuff like this genuinely makes me very content,' he concludes.

A Prior Encounter and a Funny Mistake

Prior to his move back from North Carolina to take on his first job in senior management last month, Fuchs’s last trip to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester endured a Newport shock defeat in the FA Cup third round. On that occasion a former full-back competed with Fuchs. {'He had the match of his career,' Fuchs says. But when the teamsheets dropped, an curious error came to light. {'You need to redact this,' Fuchs remarks. 'They got wrong my name – somehow a 'k' found its way in in place of the 'h'. It is amusing because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something nice.'

Insights from Ranieri, Rodgers and Tuchel

His decision to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 turned out to be brilliant. A couple of weeks later Leicester hired Claudio Ranieri and what followed is legendary. The Italian joined the club in the midst of a pre-season camp in Austria and his light-touch approach worked wonders. {'When you observe Claudio you imagine an older man, so long in the business, maybe a bit set in his ways, but he’s anything but,' Fuchs states. {'He just said he was going to monitor training in Austria for the first week. He stayed out of it at all. After that week we had a meeting and he said: 'I’ve studied you for a week and I’m not going to change anything.''

Fuchs values experiences from Rodgers and Tuchel, under whom he worked while on loan at Mainz. {'He always considered: ‘How can I get extra out of the players? How can I challenge them mentally?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a big part of our methodology as well. How can you make good players who choose wisely? Back then he was probably in a similar situation to where I am now … very driven, very eager to prove himself.'

Origins and a Resolute Mindset

Fuchs’s motivation originates in his upbringing in Neunkirchen. {'There are similarities to where we are now, because I was told when I was 11 years old that I would never be good enough,' he discloses. {'There are people who let that defeat them or there are people who say: ‘Fuchs you, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You can't do this, you cannot do that.’ I’m going to demonstrate that I can and work my socks off. The other thing about my make-up is: I’m very stubborn. If I see possibility, I’m making it happen.'

Detailed Approach and the Battle for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and had been in charge of Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs fires up his laptop to show analytics from a recent 2-2 draw, displaying a slide he showed his players. {'The team hit many, many season bests,' he says, highlighting ball progression and statistics about getting behind defensive lines. Passing accuracy was logged at 87%. {'Not happy with that … that needs to be in the mid-90s,' he insists. {'My first game, it was very direct, fourth-tier football, but we want to be distinct. I think a five-yard pass has a higher percentage to find its target than just launching it all the time.'

The general numbers paint bleak reading. Newport have secured three of 19 league matches and are winless in eight in all competitions. By the time of their next home game, they will have not secured three points at home for 273 days and have kept just two clean sheets in 26 matches this season. But a recent last-gasp equaliser with 10 men garnered a crucial point. {'We need to be a power at home,' Fuchs stresses. {'It’s just not satisfactory, not even having a win. We need to construct a impenetrable home.'

One of the Lads at Heart

By his own acknowledgement, Fuchs relishes a challenge. {'What’s so wrong with that?' He retired less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, enjoys being in the thick of things. {'I’m a member of the group. I’m still a player in here,' he remarks, tapping his chest. {'At training I’m always participating in the drills – two nutmegs already, brilliant! I want us to regard each other as one team. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re a collective, we’re working on this together.'