Of all the things you could find to criticise about Julian Nagelsmann, a lack of self-confidence will never be one of them.
As his European first-timers Hoffenheim prepare to host Pep Guardiola's mighty Manchester City, Nagelsmann is as confident as ever.
'I'm not going to complain about injuries, because we still have a team who can hurt City,' said the Hoffenheim coach on Monday. 'We have thought up a good and bold plan.'
With five of his defenders on the treatment table, you could have forgiven Nagelsmann for being a tiny bit scared of City's front line, but the 31-year-old was having none of it.
This, after all, is a man who has made a habit of exploding expectations.
He did so nearly three years ago, when at the age of just 28, he became the youngest head coach in Bundesliga history and promptly guided a seemingly doomed Hoffenheim side to safety.
Since then, Nagelsmann has twice led Hoffenheim, a club from a town of 3000 people, into the top four.
He regularly exchanges text messages with Pep Guardiola, as the City boss admitted this week, and in the summer he reportedly turned down an offer from Real Madrid.
Nagelsmann lists Guardiola as one of his idols, alongside Arsene Wenger and his former mentor Thomas Tuchel, and there are many who believe that the Hoffenheim coach can be as successful as any of them.
His reputation goes so far ahead of him that it is easy to forget that tonight will be his home debut in the Champions League.
The personality cult surrounding Nagelsmann has a lot to do with his age, and a lot to do with his success.
Hoffenheim, a village club made big a decade ago by their wealthy benefactor Dietmar Hopp, remain very small fry in European terms, but Nagelsmann has them punching above their weight.
Underdogs though they are, not everyone in Germany will be willing them on against City. Hoffenheim are intensely disliked by many German fans, with Hopp the subject of much abuse in the terraces.
A Cologne fan was last week fined nearly £5000 for a banner insulting the Hoffenheim investor, while Dortmund fans have repeatedly displayed banners with Hopp's face in the middle of crosshairs.
Nagelsmann commands more respect, however grudging.
He is part of a generation of German managerial talents who the German media once coined the 'laptop coaches'.
Part real phenomenon and part media construct, the laptop coaches are characterised by youth, clean-cut images and technological and tactical innovation. Tuchel was the pioneer, Nagelsmann is the archetype.
Famously, he has had an enormous video wall installed on the touchline at Hoffenheim's training pitch, so that players can enjoy three camera angles' worth of live video analysis as they train.
There have also been wackier, and less successful, innovations. In an interview with Bild last spring, Nagelsmann told of how he had tried to enforce the use of proper German grammar on the training pitch, giving out fines to players who failed to use the correct articles. He dropped the scheme pretty quickly.
That he has the confidence and authority to try such things out, despite being around the same age as most of his players, speaks volumes of his mentality.
Indeed, were it not for his almost belligerent approach to adversity, Nagelsmann's star would surely have faded by now.
The rapid rise in his reputation has also put him under immense scrutiny, after all.
Perennially linked with Bayern Munich, Nagelsmann faced heavy criticism last year for his failure to rule out a move to his native Bavaria, and Hoffenheim's form suffered under the strain.
Between October and March last season, at the height of speculation, they won just six games out of 25.
Yet somehow Nagelsmann pulled through, and ultimately led them into the Champions League proper for the first time.
His defiance had won out once again, though not everybody was happy for him. Especially given the ambivalence towards Hoffenheim, Nagelsmann's cockiness is not to everyone's taste. Yet there are few who could now question his calibre.
After all, only a very good coach is able to turn down Real Madrid. That is what Nagelsmann reportedly did last summer, agreeing instead to take over at RB Leipzig, one of the few clubs more hated than Hoffenheim, next season.
'The big problem in our society is the obsession with maximisation,' said Nagelsmann, explaining his decision in an interview with 11 Freunde magazine.
'Everyone wants the biggest car, the biggest bank account, the biggest house. I don't want any part of that.'
'It's not as if I didn't think about it. Who hangs up when Real Madrid call?
'But I am in the comfortable position of being only 30 years old. If my career carries on like this, then maybe I will get another chance to manage a club like that.'
Bold words, perhaps, but the Hoffenheim coach knows a thing or too by now about living up to high expectations.
If, by a miracle, his bold plan to beat City on Tuesday somehow works, then it could well be the beginning of a glorious career in European football.