The Vitinha era: Al-Ittihad's new tiger ready for the hunt

Any coach lives or dies by results, and Vissing arrives with silverware already in the bag just six months into life as a manager. He got there in Saudi Arabia a few months ago, when his Gamba Osaka side beat Al-Nassr in the final of the AFC Champions League 2.

Working as Roger Schmidt's assistant, Vissing lifted the Dutch Cup at PSV Eindhoven before winning the Portuguese Primeira Liga with Benfica. He knows exactly what a club the size of Al-Ittihad demands. He told the players at their pre-season camp in Spain: "What is our identity? It is the long history, the tradition, the many titles, and a winning mentality. Let us enjoy working together, the idea of football is fun. Of course we want to achieve success, we have to win matches, and we want to win something."

Read also: What happened behind the scenes? Algeria closes the Xavi file

Al-Ittihad won two Roshn League titles in the past four seasons, but they now stand at a new turning point in their illustrious history.

Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Abderrazak Hamdallah and Ahmed Hegazi drove that success. All of them were veterans over the age of thirty, and all of them have now left the club.

Chief executive Domingos Soares de Oliveira set out to lower the squad's average age, charting a new course and direction that demanded a fresh coaching profile to match the vision.

Soares knew his man. He was Benfica's chief executive when Vissing served as an assistant coach there, and that connection helped shape the decision to appoint him.

Soares said: "We have known Mr Vissing for a while, and I worked with him in the past. We know he is a young, very talented and ambitious coach, and he has a strong desire to succeed with Al-Ittihad."

Fessing's task involves managing the transition between generations, something he pulled off at Gamba Osaka. The clearest example: dropping goalkeeper Masaaki Higashiguchi and forward Takashi Usami.

Both are former Japan internationals with 700 club appearances between them. In came an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old to replace them.

Speaking to the Japanese league association, Fessing explained how he strikes the balance between experience and youth. "We have wonderful players with great experience, who bring a lot of knowledge and quality to the team, and they are very important for the young players. But I would say there is natural competition in our team. Our experienced players are very open to guiding the young players, leading them and supporting them to give them the space to develop, and we have already made some changes in certain positions, where we play with a young goalkeeper aged 18, and I have very good experience in that."

You can see it in his eyes when he speaks. Everything Wiesing does, he does with high intensity and sharpness, and he wants his teams to reflect that. Earlier this year, he told the German magazine Kicker: "The overarching principle is attacking and defending together. This means everything on the pitch must happen at the right moment with great tactical cohesion and the necessary sharpness. Elements such as dynamic positioning, verticality, counter-pressing, and compact, ball-oriented defending play a decisive role."

No surprise, then, that Wiesing emerged from the Red Bull Salzburg system. That background, and his appreciation for the standing of Al-Ittihad, leave him ready to win over the club's boisterous supporters.

Speaking during the recent training camp in Spain, Wiesing said: "The emblem carries a tiger, so what are the characteristics of the tiger? Very strong, dominant, patient, and sometimes passive. But if it hunts, it launches with all its power without hesitation, without any hesitation. We must take these characteristics and put them on the pitch. Because we all wear this shirt, and we must always be proud of it."

Read also: The wound of the weakest link in Morocco's project: Lekjaa sounds the alarm