Manchester United has finally brought in an interim manager and as talked about last week, it’s former RB Leipzig manager Ralf Rangnick.
The 63-year-old’s name had been doing the rounds ever since Solskjaer was shown the door and on Monday, Manchester United have formally announced his arrival at the club.
Ralf Rangnick will be the interim manager until the end of the 2021/22 season and then he will take up a consultancy role at the club for the next two years.
All the parties are waiting for the work visa permits to be cleared and as per several reports, he could be in charge next weekend when Man United face Crystal Palace.
"I am excited to be joining Manchester United and focused on making this a successful season for the club. The squad is full of talent.
"All my efforts will be on helping these players fulfil their potential, both individually and, most importantly, as a team."#MUFC pic.twitter.com/a3GKC42MuH
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) November 29, 2021
The Ralf Rangnick philosophy: How will he change Man United?
Ralf Rangnick is known as the person who formally introduced German football to Gegenpressing – a style that had later influenced managers like Thomas Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp.
So there’s no doubt that he will be looking to bring in the same method into Manchester United. In a recent conference, the former RB Leipzig explained the five key factors which are needed for a team to win matches.
He had told The Coaches Voice: “It’s about controlling the game. We have, in fact, five situations in the meantime that decide football games.
“You need to have, as a coach, a very clear idea of how we want to play when we have the ball ourselves.
“Number two is: what do we want to do if the other team has got the ball? What kind of game plan to I give my players when the other team has got the ball? Our idea is clear. It’s very, very similar to my coaching friend Jurgen Klopp.
“Our Red Bull football is heavy metal, rock and roll. It’s not slow waltz. We hate square passes and back passes. Just having the ball ourselves doesn’t make sense.
“Then we have the moment of transition: what happens when we lose the ball and what happens when we win the ball? This is number three and number four.
“Then, of course, we have the set-pieces. This is highly important. If 30 per cent of the goals are being scored after set-pieces, how much percentage of our training time should we invest in set-pieces? Thirty per cent.
“It’s about putting the other team under pressure, no matter how high up [the pitch]. The higher up the better, but wherever the ball is, we try to win the ball back.
“It’s not only about the location where we win the ball, it’s also about the intensity. The more aggressively we win the ball in that moment, the more we take this intensity and tempo into the counter-attack. That means, the more intensely we win the ball, the bigger the chance we create.
“Also highly important is ‘rest defence’. No matter if you are playing two or three central defenders, they have to make sure that the one or two players the other team has up front are being marked. They have to be closely marked, because if we allow them to control the ball, then we get the counter-attack ourselves.
“This is nothing less than a train the brain issue. This is what we call ‘rest defence’ and it’s a very important thing that you train this. Not only tell the player, but train it in the training sessions.”
Can Ralf Rangnick inject Gegenpressing into the Man United players?
Rangnick’s tactics might look simple and pleasing to the eye but under the radar, it’s very intricate and meticulous so now the only thing left to see is that just how quickly will the Man United players be able to adapt to this style of football.
Under Ole, Man United were all over the place as there seemed to be no plan at all. But once Ralf Rangnick comes to town all that will change.
Last week against Villarreal, Man United tried to play a high-press game under the guidance of Michael Carrick. But on Sunday, that plan was conveniently thrown out of the window.
Some pundits have claimed that the Ralf Rangnick might have worked with Carrick to select the first XI against Chelsea which, if true, could give us a hint as to which players will be regular starters under him for the remainder of the season.
Six months is a really short time to hard-wire a ‘heavy metal’ brand of football into the Manchester United players but even if Ralf Rangnick can help stabilize the ship before the next permanent manager comes into, the German would have had done an outstanding job.
