Holger Seitz praises Niko Kovac’s watchful eye on Bayern Munich’s reserves and amateurs

Holger Seitz has been a youth coach at Bayern Munich since 2015, and the 44-year old has led the Bayern reserve team to the top of the Regionalliga Bayern (North) table so far this season with an impressive record of 13 wins, 5 draws, and only 2 losses. Several players within the reserve team have been given the chance to train with Bayern’s senior squad and some have even featured for the senior squad. Lars Lukas Mai, Christian Fruchtl, Woo-Yeong Jong, Meritan Shabani, Franck Evina, Oliver Batista-Meier, and Kwasi Okyere Wreidt among others have all recieved call ups at one point or another.

In a recent interview with Fupa.net, Seitz expressed his delight with the communication his coaching staff has had with both Niko and Robert Kovac, saying that it helps keep his players highly motivated:

Several players (from the amateurs) are currently training with the pros. The situation is wonderful. We coordinated and exchanged information with Niko and Robert Kovac in advanced. The contact is great. Niko Kovac knew about the individual talents in detail right from the start. That’s a signal to the entire youth academy. We have many young pros that can show what they can do in team training with the (first-team) pros, show that they want to play in the Allianz Arena. The door is open and it’s thus up to every individual. We certainly won’t hold anyone up! (laughs).

Seitz went on to describe (via Fupa.net) just how closely Niko Kovac pays attention to Bayern’s reserve and youth teams and said it’s beyond him how Kovac finds enough time in his crazy schedule to look over stats and video highlights from the reserve team:

Niko is always completely informed about the performance of the second team. He even watches a lot of games himself, was even live in the stadium himself one or two times, and is always updated through the whole video technology that is available now. It sometimes surprises me how he finds the time for it with all his other duties.

Kovac’s watchful eye is something that gives Seitz that extra motivation to do his job well, but he admits that it’s just an added bonus for something he already enjoys thoroughly:

(It motivates me) A lot, but you don’t really have to motivate me, because I enjoy soccer, just as we all do. It’s simply our passion, but for our youth players, it’s crazy when you notice that a head coach is there, informing himself, watching, and also talking with this or that person. Since Nico has been here, that’s literally what we have. It’s totally motivating. So, whoever among the young players hasn’t realized that the moment is more favorable than it has been in years, we couldn’t help him anyway. But that’s not my impression.

The Bayern reserves rounded out the first half of their season with a well-deserved 4-1 win over Everton’s U23’s in the Premier League International Cup last week. After the win, Seitz reflected on what’s been an impressive first half of the season from his squad, saying that the rest they’ll get during the winter break period is more than deserved (via FCBayern.com):

Both the team and the players individually have made excellent progress. This is reflected not least in the good starting position in which we are for the second season section. For the moment, we can be very satisfied, the boys have earned the holiday honestly!