What can Rangnick bring to United?

By Tom Cole, published on 15/11/21

Whilst not the most recognisable of names, he boasts a fantastic CV and has revolutionised German football, but how could he change the fortunes of the Red Devils?

Since Solskjaer was sacked at the weekend, the search has been on to find a new man to take the helm. Numerous names have been mentioned from Pochettino to Zidane, and whilst it looked as if Valverde was going to be the new gaffer, Ralf Rangnick has now risen to the top and looks set to take over.

This is an interesting choice as throughout Rangnick’s career he has been more well known as project manager rather than someone to come in and stable the ship for six months. He has been heavily involved with the Red Bull projects both in Austria and Germany, acting as more of a Director of Football and only taking the managerial roles during times of crisis on a short term basis. Perhaps this decision indicates the same may happen at United, he will be our manager for six months and then move upstairs when we sign a manager on a long-term deal in the summer.

Rangnick can be credited with the helping to shape the idea of gegenpressing, that a team should immediately attempt to win the ball back rather than dropping into a defence shape and allowing the opposition to begin an attack. He referred to the way Red Bull Leipzig play as “heavy metal, rock and roll football”, meaning that there was very little time for sideways or backwards passing, they are always looking to score and without the ball pressing immediately. Many Premier League fans will be used to this style of football since Klopp joined Liverpool, even in his less successful early years with the club you could see the style there with how they used to go full pelt for the first 20 minutes and score a couple of goals, that sometimes being enough to blow teams away before the match had barely started.

Klopp is not the only one who needs to credit Rangnick with his playing style, is has also been said that Tuchel, Nagelsmann and Hassenhuttl all learnt a great deal from his teachings and philosophy. Seeing what Tuchel has done in a short time at Chelsea and Nagelsmann quickly rising through the managerial ranks at such a young age, I think it is time for United to get excited about the football we could be playing in the next few months. This may also be a clue as to who the club could be looking at signing on a permanent deal in the summer, a manager who already has connections to this style of play may be the most stable way to continue the project.

This style would be a rude awakening to our team, Ole had not been implementing the pressing style many clubs have adopted in the Premier League and did seem to prefer dropping off into shape, so it will be interesting to see how quickly our players can adapt. The only potential worry is that Ronaldo will not be able to make a big impact if we are gegenpressing due to his age and not wanting to tire himself out doing his defensive duties. We saw as Manchester City beat PSG midweek that if your attackers are not engaging in the defensive work and tracking back to close passing routes, the whole system can fall apart, so Rangnick will need to decide how this is going to work and which team sheet to choose off the back of this.

Overall, it seems like an exciting option for United to take. His record as a Director of Football is fantastic and coming in during those interim spells for Red Bull Leipzig have always led to success. Expect to see lots of goals and exciting football over the next six months, with the potential of Manchester United signing their first ever Director of Football at the end of his tenure in the dugout.