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'I reckon that the chances of us reviving our campaign are lower than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favor, right?' Christian Fuchs is reflecting on his fresh chapter as head coach of the League Two strugglers, and the daunting task of staving off a fall into non-league football. Here lies a challenge at the polar opposite of the spectrum, though that fairytale title win in 2016 provided him with much more than a champion's gong. {'It helped change my perspective a little bit ... it proved that the impossible can be attainable,' he remarks.

The Unlikely Path to Rodney Parade

The natural place to start is: how did Fuchs wind up here? 'I imagine that's the part that's illogical, right?' he comments, breaking into a chuckle. It is the 39-year-old's introductory line and a clear indication of his charismatic character across a colourful conversation. Our talk runs in various tangents, from being managed by Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the urgent quest to find a nearby hairdresser.

He opens some mail on his desk. There is a note from a Leicester supporter wishing him well, along with a couple of glossy photos from that season. {'Young Fuchs,' he muses, grinning. Another delivery brings a collection of old stickers, one from an album marking Euro 2016, when he captained Austria. A greeting from the Newport Supporters’ Club has pride of place. 'Stuff like this really makes me very content,' he concludes.

A Previous Visit and a Typographical Error

Until returning from North Carolina to assume his first job in frontline management last month, Fuchs’s previous visit to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester were on the end of a Newport giantkilling in the FA Cup third round. During that match the Newport kit man faced off against Fuchs. {'He had the performance of his career,' Fuchs admits. But when the lineup cards came out, an amusing error was discovered. {'You need to edit this,' Fuchs says with a smile. 'They misspelt my name – somehow a 'k' smuggled itself in in place of the 'h'. It is funny because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something pleasant.'

Experiences from The Tinkerman, Rodgers and Tuchel

His choice to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 was brilliant. A couple of weeks later Leicester hired Claudio Ranieri and the rest is history. The Italian joined the club in the midst of a pre-season camp in Austria and his light-touch approach produced miracles. {'When you see Claudio you envision an elder gentleman, so long in the business, maybe a bit set in his ways, but he’s so not,' Fuchs states. {'He just said he was going to monitor training in Austria for the first week. He remained on the sidelines at all. After that week we had a meeting and he said: 'I’ve observed you for a week and I’m not going to modify anything.''

Fuchs cherishes lessons learned from Rodgers and Tuchel, under whom he worked while on loan at Mainz. {'He always thought: ‘How can I get more out of the players? How can I test them mentally?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a big part of our methodology as well. How can you make good decision-makers? Back then he was probably in a analogous place to where I am now … very motivated, very eager to prove himself.'

Origins and a Resolute Character

Fuchs’s motivation stems from his childhood in Neunkirchen. {'There are parallels to where we are now, because I was told when I was 11 years old that I would never be good enough,' he shares. {'There are people who let that get the better of them or there are people who say: ‘Fuchs you, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You can not do this, you can't do that.’ I’m going to show that I can and work my socks off. The other thing about my personality is: I’m pretty stubborn. If I see promise, I’m making it happen.'

Analytical Approach and the Fight for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and formerly ran Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs boots up his laptop to show statistics from a recent 2-2 draw, presenting a slide he used with his players. {'The team hit many, many season bests,' he explains, noting ball progression and statistics about breaking defensive lines. Passing accuracy was logged at 87%. {'Not happy with that … that needs to be in the 90-95% range,' he declares. {'My first game, it was very long-ball, fourth-tier football, but we want to be different. I think a five-yard pass has a higher chance to be successful than just hoofing it all the time.'

The overarching numbers paint sobering reading. Newport have won three of 19 league matches and are without a victory 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 dominant side at home,' Fuchs says. {'It’s just not good enough, not even having a win. We need to construct a fortress.'

Still a Player at Heart

By his own acknowledgement, Fuchs relishes a challenge. {'What’s so negative with that?' He retired less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, loves being in the thick of things. {'I’m a member of the group. I’m still a player at heart,' he states, tapping his chest. {'At training I’m always getting involved in the drills – two megs already, brilliant! I want us to view each other as a single unit. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re a collective, we’re working on this together.'