Elversberg already look at home in the Bundesliga, but survival remains the objective for Vincent Wagner's top-flight new boys. The Bundesliga caught up with the 40-year-old head coach to discuss his side's 10-point haul after six games, the Saarland club's role in Germany's revamp under Jürgen Klopp and more.

Bundesliga: A year ago you were still coaching the U23s and were teaching as a PE and history teacher, and today you are a Bundesliga head coach. What part of Vincent Wagner has not been able to keep up with this change?

Vincent Wagner: "That’s a good question. I have to admit that I haven’t been a teacher for a while longer than that. Coaching became my full-time job with my switch to the U23s at Elversberg, which is not to say that the eight years of teaching before that was not a full-time job, but it was maybe not quite paid as such. In terms of what has not made the transition, I think actually I have taken everything with me, including luckily my family. It is one of the most important things for me and we had the luxury in the last few years of always being together. It’s nice to be in such a good place with my girls and now also with my son."

Bundesliga: How proud are you of your team?

Wagner: "That is a very big word that I usually use very, very rarely. However, since the lads are performing so exceptionally, it’s a word that I have used much more often recently. The lads make me very proud, especially the attitude with which they have approached things. Sometimes it’s just the small things, such as the openness with which they welcomed the new players and the new coaching staff. There are many small things that we can be proud of, but we can currently be proud of the bigger things too."

Watch: Elversberg's historic promotion

Bundesliga: How much does a game like Saturday’s 4-3 win against Augsburg take out of you, and how good did the bath afterwards feel?

Wagner: "The bath did a lot of good and it’s always really nice. I have done this since U14s, when I used to watch the game back two or three times. The game at the weekend was special and not like any other game.

"The Bundesliga is special and I noticed this even last year when I was in the second division for half a year. Nevertheless, the step up from the second to the first division is big and it just hits you because the stakes are so high. You notice this in the big stadiums, the media presence, and the fact that everything is even bigger still. It was a wild ride on Saturday with a good result for us in terms of the way the game panned out, the multiple VAR decisions, the fact the momentum swung both ways, and that the result still wasn’t clear by the end. Winning is definitely the best feeling in football."

Bundesliga: You said you always have a bath after a game. What significance does this have for you?

Wagner: I hope no more significance than for anyone else on this planet! My day is busy from morning until night with countless conversations and impressions from training, so I think it helps me to relax, whether it’s a bath or a shower. It helps me to settle my thoughts, but the bath otherwise has no greater meaning to me than to anyone else. Although I don’t understand how some people don’t like having a bath. I am very much a bath fan."

Watch: Elversberg celebrate third Bundesliga win

Bundesliga: Let’s talk about Felix Keidel. When and how did you hear about his call-up to the national team? Did you have contact with Jürgen Klopp and when is he coming to Elversberg?

Wagner: "I have to admit that before last year, I had also not been to the wonderful Saarland. I have had regular conversations with the national team coach and they have always been friendly and constructive. We talk about which players are being considered and Felix was mentioned. Once the squad was assembled and it was clear that he was in the plans, I got the good news from Jürgen and had the honour of passing that on. We have divided up the players among the coaching staff with everyone having some individual analysis responsibilities with some of the lads. It then fell to Mike [Frantz] to give Felix the good news and I’m sure it was a cool moment. It is a special moment for a player to be called up to the national team."

Bundesliga: What was his first reaction? Did he share it with you? Was he surprised?

Wagner: "As I said, I wasn’t there for his first reaction because Mike told him. At first, he thought he was winding him up, but it is something special for us. On the other hand, the result was not so great for us, but in the second game we did play two up front with Bambasé Conté and Younes Ebnoutalib, who were our two strikers in the special first half to last season – so it seems Elversberg is playing its part."

Elversberg right-back Felix Keidel is part of Jürgen Klopp's Germany revamp. - IMAGO/Fotostand / Schäfer

Bundesliga: You actually anticipated the next question quite well. Less than two years ago, Younes Ebnoutalib was still playing in the Regionalliga for Gießen. Under your guidance, he became a top striker at Elversberg, moved to Eintracht Frankfurt, and is now a national team player. What did you see in him back then that, at that level, hardly anyone else seemed to have spotted?

Wagner: "A lot of people are involved in the development of these players and the most important thing is always that the player is fully committed, which was definitely the case with Ebnou. Younes had already played quite a lot and we saw potential in him because we wanted to bring him to Hoffenheim. Unfortunately, he then went to Elversberg, which of course turned out well for me just six months later – that is how football turns out sometimes. For me, it was not a question of whether it would work, but rather a question of when it would work. It was quite simple.

"However, some people were nervous in summer because he was battling a bit with his self-confidence and there were a few difficulties with being understood because the way we play might not always be so straightforward, even though it is easy in principle. There have to be one or two secrets in how we play. Younes and I worked very intensively together in the first eight weeks and we sat together three times a week to discuss the wide world of football, especially in his role as centre forward. This development doesn’t surprise me at all because he is extremely fit, a running machine, learns very quickly, and has football intelligence. He learned quickly where to make the runs, even if he didn’t understand it at the start. He will go his way and he is a great striker, which is why he is now in the national team."

Bundesliga: Let’s stick with these two. Keidel is set to become a national team player, and Ebnoutalib is following the same path; player development was already your main focus back at Hoffenheim. What is the first sign that makes you realise a promising young player has the potential to become a Bundesliga player?

Wagner: "It has been my main focus since U14s because I have guided players since then and the exciting prospect then is whether they can make it professional. If you ask the young players, that is all they want to do and then you have to ask them whether they know what this really means. A lot of people don’t understand the consequences because you have to sacrifice a lot. The luxury I had in Hoffenheim was the amazing players and the great characters. Hennes Behrens is getting a lot of buzz at the moment, but he is just one example of many.

"The cool thing in Hoffenheim is that you get top players with a good attitude and then I was able to teach them a bit of the heavy metal football from the Ruhr area and a bit of fire in their bellies. This is how the lads developed in the three years and it’s great to see where they all are now. I have also become a bit of a shirt collector when I come across the lads again playing in Bundesliga. I am not surprised because there were a lot of dedicated players there and it was an honour to be able to guide them."

Bundesliga: But let’s come back to this part of the question: can you tell straight away? For some people, it’s more of a latent talent, but from what age can you tell? Lots of players want to become a professional footballer but it doesn’t always happen.

Wagner: "It is nice as a coach when you see something special in a player, which I have had enough times now, and then I am certain that it will work out. If you work together then it usually definitely works out because everything is possible in football, which is the exciting thing. Too many people are written off in football and told that they are not going to make it, but this is not our job as coaches. As long as you are working together, you have to give everything and work on the development. If he doesn’t make it with me, then I hope he makes it at the next club or the club after that.

"I am a little concerned about German youth football because judgements are cast too quickly and things that are passed off as failures of the player are actually failures of the coaching. You see the potential in some players, but Frederik Schmahl came to Hoffenheim from Luckenwalde a few years ago and nobody would have thought that he would be playing in the Bundesliga just a few years later. He is a great character who worked unbelievably hard on his dream every day and funnily enough, he scored his first Bundesliga goal at the weekend. Everything is possible in football and that will remain the case, but it is not just gifted to you."

Ex-Elversberg striker Younes Ebnoutalib has enjoyed a rapid rise from the fourth tier of German football to the senior national team. - IMAGO/Eduard Martin

Bundesliga: Do you have to sometimes pinch yourself with the crazy ride you have been on? You were at Hoffenheim II and then you got promoted with Elversberg despite a huge upheaval, and now you have 10 points after six matches.

Wagner: "Unfortunately, we can’t get promoted again this year. I was lucky to be part of so many promotions in the last few years, first with Hoffenheim and then with Elversberg. The advantage of having been a youth coach is that you learn to deal with lots of upheaval, so we were able to deal with it quite well last season. We don’t think about tables and points here. Of course it is an indicator, but our aim is to play football as well as possible.

"I think we can improve a lot and we need to improve a lot because according to xG, we probably deserved a little less than what we have got. On the other hand, there were a few occasions where we could have found a better pass or taken the shot and then we would have had more opportunities. We don’t set ourselves any boundaries, we just want to play better football and we have still got a lot to do for that."

Bundesliga: Before the season started, avoiding relegation was, in effect, like a journey to Mars for you. Now, after six matches, you have ten points. How might a good start change your season’s objective – and what must it under no circumstances do to the team?

Wagner: "We are very far away from changing our season goals. We have had a good start, but there is still a long way to go. Our aim is still 40 points and we can talk again after that. We should not lose our focus, but that won’t happen to us anyway. Everyone seems to be excited about hitting the magic mark of three games without a loss. We lost a very close game against against Bayern in Munich and then we drew with Schalke and lost to Union Berlin. We are now playing against Leipzig and Dortmund, so you can start counting the games very quickly. Ultimately, we cannot let ourselves be changed as a group and we won’t let that happen because we do not let ourselves be dependent on the results."

Watch: Wagner on stepping up to the Bundesliga

Bundesliga: Against Augsburg, Noah Darvich and Jan Gyamerah had to come off injured before half-time, whilst Tom Zimmerschied was already out. How are the three of them doing – particularly with the Leipzig match coming up this weekend?

Wagner: "Things look good with Jan, but we won’t take too much of a risk since we also had to take Noah off. We came through relatively unscathed up until the international break, which was very much the case last year as well and that was a key secret to our success. We always had unbelievable availability, but reality was always going to hit at some point because the work load in the Bundesliga is simply so much higher.

"I don’t want to say that we were able to relax last year, but there were few games where we had to push ourselves to our limits in terms of running. We didn’t want to do it and we didn’t have to do it because our plan was never to run around as much as possible, but rather to run in a meaningful way. However, the problem now is that we have to run in a meaningful way and we also have to run for our lives in order to be successful, so we have to push our limits. You then notice this with the injuries. Noah and Zimme are probably out until the international break, but things look good with the others. We are coping well at the moment and I hope that continues to be the case."

Bundesliga: Leipzig are up next at the weekend. Leipzig beat Frankfurt 6-0 and, a week later, lost 1-6 away to Bayern. What do these two extremes tell you about the opposition – and how much of your own style of play can you actually impose in such circumstances?

Wagner: "We only play our football. That doesn’t mean that we won’t have to sit a little bit deeper because that can always happen. Unfortunately, it seems that we are currently always playing against a trend. We are now playing away against Leipzig, who have won all three of their home games and I think they won their last home game before Frankfurt convincingly too. They have won all three of their home games and unfortunately, we have to play them in Leipzig.

"We then have to play against Mainz, who have won all of their away games, so there will certainly be easier phases. On the other hand, Leipzig are playing against Real Madrid [on Wednesday] so maybe we can watch how it’s done and then learn something from the mighty Real Madrid. I am sure we will be able to do that."