Sunderland v Sheffield Wednesday: Yan Valery says Owls are playing a better version of what he learnt in the Premier League

For fans of the Championship football club, that is some prospect.

Rohl drew admirers last season completing what felt like mission impossible at Sunderland in May by saving the Owls from relegation.

If this term’s first two matches – with two totally different XIs – are any guide, Wearside should see a team which has gone up a notch or two when the sides meet again at Sunday lunchtime.

With respect to Plymouth Argyle and Hull City, a Sunderland side revitalised from the rabble of springtime and a visit from Leeds United next week should be sterner tests, but the Owls look like a team neutrals should make a beeline for.

Their 35-year-old coach is a student of a school of football pioneered by Ralf Rangnick at RB Leipzig, where Rohl began his coaching career. High-pressing, gegenpressing, intense and fluid, all the modern coaching buzzwords fit the ball.

Rohl followed Ralph Hasenhuttl to Southampton, again as his assistant, and first came across Valery.

Even with Hasenhuttl pulling the strings, Rohl's influence on the French-born Tunisia defender was clear. It was a big reason why when Wednesday offered the chance to sate his and his wife's yearning to return to England after a spell with Angers he jumped at it.

But now Rohl is the boss, and after he furthered his education working under former Red Bull Salzburg assistant Hansi Flick with Bayern Munich and Germany, Valery has got more than he bargained for, and he could not be happier.

Rohl has bombarded him with detail in a pre-season which sounded like a cross between a boot camp and a fast-track Open University course, and loaded responsibilities on the 25-year-old to point where you wonder if "right-back" breaches the Trade Description Act.

An eager learner who broadened his sporting education with other sports, Valery relishes it.

"It was the same idea of football in terms of pressing and counter-pressing but he added things with the ball we didn't have at Southampton," he marvels. "His style of football now is more complete.

"With the ball he's added things that will make a big difference.

"In training you see we can keep the ball, one touch, two touch, the little details, when to make the pass, where to be in the space. If you're good without the ball in terms of pressing and counter-pressing and you add being good on the ball I don't see why you do not win.

"He's improved a lot and it's enjoyable to learn from him."

Pinching ideas learnt working with some of the best players ever to represent Germany sounds a good idea but translating it to second-tier football could be over-ambitious.

"That's true," smiles Rohl, "but my players can do a lot of good things.

"You have to look at which parts to focus on now and which parts are not possible. This was a lesson for me in the second leg of (last) season."

Like Hull City's Tim Walter – another German, albeit not a Red Bull graduate – Rohl seems to be pushing 21st Century Total Football, where players swap positions at will.

"I don't disrespect the coach I had at Angers, but he's definitely not on the same level as Danny; it's definitely more complicated," says Valery.

"I can't just do anything I want but it's what you feel on the pitch. At the same time on and off the pitch I know what I have to do and every player on the pitch knows.

"I don't want to give away too much early in the season but you know if someone doesn't fill that space and you can do it and someone is filling your space, basically do it, because it will make a difference. We worked a lot in pre-season.

"As a right-back I can be a deeper like a centre-back, higher like a winger, or a bit more like an eight (box-to-box midfielder) or a six (holder). All of it depends on the movement of my team-mates."

Rohl being Rohl, two early-season wins are not going to get him giddy.

"Even after the last two games we had a lot of clips I showed them of what we can improve," he says proudly. "Just one win is nothing in this league!"

It is not just the football that surprised Valery, admitting that living in Southampton "when you go to the north you don't see much, just red bricks and grey".

But he has always been open-minded, turning his back on football as child in favour of judo, taekwondo, handball and tennis before coming back.

"In marital arts, especially when you're young, you learn a a few values and your mentality gets stronger," he says. "I'm happy to have all this in my luggage.

"I want my kids to do martial arts when they get older. It's really good for discipline and a way of thinking."

"Diverse" Sheffield, radical Rohl and “crazy” Hillsborough have opened his mind.

"I love to improve, I feel I've already improved in two months and hopefully I will improve this season," he says. "I'm really enjoying this style of play."

He is far from alone in that.