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'I would say that the odds of us turning the season around are less than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?' Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as head coach of the Football League's bottom club, and the monumental task of averting a drop into non-league football. It is a challenge at the complete other end of the scale, though that miraculous title win in 2016 gave him a great deal more than a champion's gong. {'It assisted in altering my outlook a little bit ... it showed that the unattainable can be attainable,' he states.

The Unlikely Path to Rodney Parade

The logical place to start is: what brought Fuchs end up here? 'That's the element of the story that defies logic, wouldn't you say?' he says, breaking into a chuckle. It is the 39-year-old's opening gambit and a clear sign of his engaging character across a fascinating conversation. Discourse travels in various tangents, from being managed by Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the pressing need to find a local barber.

He opens some post on his desk. Among it is a message from a Leicester supporter offering encouragement, accompanied by a couple of professional photographs from that season. {'Young Fuchs,' he says, grinning. Another envelope brings a stash of old collector's items, one from an album marking Euro 2016, when he captained Austria. A card from the Newport Supporters’ Club is displayed prominently. 'Stuff like this genuinely makes me very content,' he concludes.

A Past Trip and a Typographical Error

Prior to his move back from North Carolina to assume his first job in senior management last month, Fuchs’s previous visit to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester suffered a Newport cupset in the FA Cup third round. That day a former full-back competed with Fuchs. {'He had the game of his life,' Fuchs admits. But when the lineup cards were released, an interesting error emerged. {'You need to censor this,' Fuchs jokes. 'They misspelt my name – somehow a 'k' found its way in in place of the 'h'. It is funny because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something nice.'

Experiences from The Tinkerman, Rodgers and Tuchel

His decision to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 turned out to be a masterstroke. A couple of weeks later Leicester brought in Claudio Ranieri and what followed is legendary. The Italian came to the club in the heart of a pre-season camp in Austria and his hands-off approach worked wonders. {'When you observe Claudio you picture an seasoned professional, so long in the business, maybe a bit traditional, 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 observed you for a week and I’m not going to modify anything.''

Fuchs cherishes experiences 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 push them psychologically?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a big part of our philosophy as well. How can you make good thinkers on the pitch? Back then he was probably in a analogous place to where I am now … very motivated, very keen to prove himself.'

Origins and a Resolute Mindset

Fuchs’s motivation originates in his upbringing 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 discloses. {'There are people who let that get the better of them or there are people who say: ‘Watch me, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You can't do this, you can't do that.’ I’m going to demonstrate that I can and work my socks off. The other thing about my personality is: I’m quite headstrong. If I see potential, I’m doing it.'

Analytical Approach and the Struggle for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and had been in charge of Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs boots up his laptop to show analytics from a recent 2-2 draw, displaying a slide he used with his players. {'The team hit numerous season bests,' he explains, noting ball progression and statistics about penetrating defensive lines. Passing accuracy was recorded at 87%. {'Not happy with that … that needs to be in the mid-90s,' he insists. {'My first game, it was very long-ball, fourth-tier football, but we want to be unique. I think a five-yard pass has a higher percentage to arrive than just launching it all the time.'

The broader numbers paint sobering reading. Newport have won three of 19 league matches and are yet to win in eight in all competitions. By the time of their next home game, they will have not won a game 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 secured a valuable point. {'We need to be a power at home,' Fuchs stresses. {'It’s just not satisfactory, not even having a win. We need to create a fortress.'

One of the Lads at Heart

By his own admission, Fuchs enjoys a challenge. {'What’s so wrong with that?' He retired less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, likes being in the middle of the action. {'I’m a component of the group. I’m still a player inside,' he remarks, indicating his chest. {'At training I’m always participating in the boxes – two nutmegs already, get in! I want us to regard each other as a unified group. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re a collective, we’re working on this as one.'