Matthias Sammer hopes RB Leipzig will be rewarded for the strategic approach to football that has them on course to qualify for the Champions League in their first Bundesliga season.
Financed by Red Bull, Leipzig have been the surprise outfit in Germany this season and have impressed with their hard-running football despite being met with hostility by opposition fans.
Leipzig have lost just two games, and despite a 3-0 defeat at Bayern Munich before the winter break they have bounced back in 2017 with two straight wins against Frankfurt and Hoffenheim and Sammer is impressed .
"It's fascinating that RB are so stable. The club hierarchy is rational and made of a high quality," former Bayern Munich sporting executive Matthias Sammer said at a PR event in Berlin on Wednesday.
"You can see that you can plan a few things on the pitch," Sammer, who was born in nearby Dresden, added. "You can't plan that a ball bounces into the goal from the post, but you can see certain strategic approaches at Leipzig. [They've] got a system, and it needs to be rewarded."
On Saturday, Leipzig face their next major test when they take on Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion. BVB currently trail RB by 11 points, and defeating the hosts would all but secure Champions League at Leipzig next term.
But Leipzig will most likely be without two of their key players. Midfielder Emil Forsberg will sit out the last match of a three-match ban following his sending off at Bayern, and 11-goal attacker Timo Werner has not trained this week because of illness.