Bundesliga: High stakes in Marco Rose's Leipzig homecoming

On May 8, 2013, league-leaders RB Leipzig were held to a goalless draw by local rivals Lokomotive Leipzig. In charge of the opposition in the fourth division that day: Marco Rose, who returns to his hometown in charge of Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday.

"Lok Leipzig is the club where I grew up and where I had my first coaching job," he recalled ahead of the game. "We were fighting relegation … but I will always be grateful to the club of my youth."

Just like in May 2013, RB are top of the league again. This time though, they're top of the Bundesliga. But unlike seven years ago, Rose is in charge of a team with lofty ambitions of their own, with Gladbach only two points behind in third.

They have never beaten the Red Bull-backed side in seven previous attempts. Should Rose manage to reverse that trend, the "Foals” would leapfrog Leipzig and blow the closest Bundesliga title race in years wide open.

Not that the five-time German champions are under any pressure to win their first league title since 1977. "It's not compulsory for us to win the league," captain Lars Stindl told kicker magazine this week. But it's to Rose's credit that they are involved at all.

The Rose effect

Despite his history with Lokomotive, the 43-year-old is very much a disciple of the Red Bull school of coaching. After arriving in the Rhineland from RB Salzburg last summer, he immediately set about adding greater dynamism, aggression and penetration to a Gladbach side which was characterized by possession football under his predecessors Dieter Hecking and Lucien Favre.

"We were very good in possession but we didn't play as fast and as direct as we do now," Swedish full-back Oscar Wendt told The Athletic. "The first time we found out how good our pressing could be was the last friendly before the season started. We pressed Chelsea like crazy, like wild dogs. They had difficulties playing out from the back."

And it quickly paid off once the season started as Gladbach led the Bundesliga for eight weeks in autumn, led by one of the most potent and varied attacks in the league. Alassane Plea, Marcus Thuram, Breel Embolo and Patrick Hermann all have at least five goals to their name this season, as Gladbach share the responsibility of goalscoring. Even Bayern Munich were no match.

Since December, however, RB Leipzig have led the way. The hunted have become the hunters.

Role reversal

While Rose has been making Gladbach a little bit more RB, his opposite number on Saturday, Julian Nagelsmann, has been making RB a bit more Gladbach, adding more possession-based solutions to Leipzig's classic pressing and counter-attacking game.

They tore Gladbach apart on the break when the two teams met at Borussia Park back in August but their failure to break down Eintracht Frankfurt last week showed that Nagelsmann still has work to do. With Saturday's visit of Gladbach followed by a trip to Munich to face Bayern, it's a decisive period.

"If we lose both games, we can almost say goodbye [to the title],” admitted striker Timo Werner this week. Victory on the other hand could see them open up a considerable gap at the top and take them closer to breaking Bayern's monopoly.

For Gladbach and Marco Rose, that's not yet a priority. A top-four finish and a return to the Champions League would be more than enough for a club which prides itself on its European pedigree.

A result on Saturday would be a huge step – as it was for his Lokomotive Leipzig side in 2013, who managed to avoid relegation. As for league-leaders RB, they went on to win the league.