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In the wrong place in the wrong position: Rangnick's appointment at Manchester United is doomed to failure
Ralph Rangnick is a guru - a genius who is ahead of his time and knows how to build football systems from scratch, while demanding complete control over what happens.
Hoffenheim and the Leipzig project suited him well.
Interim coach at Manchester United, who will then continue as a consultant?
This is not even a bad joke
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Ralph Rangnick
Manchester United
Michael Yochin
Monday, 29 November 2021, 12:00
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Ola Gunnar Solskjaer in a farewell interview with Manchester United (Sport1)
When Ralph Rangnik was appointed to his first role in the Premier League, in Stuttgart in 1999, he met Karsimir Blackov - a playmaker genius and fan idol, second only in importance to Hristo Stoichkov in the great Bulgarian national team of the 90s.
Blackov heard the young coach's demands and did not particularly like them.
He did not feel like chasing the rival players without the ball, because he saw his destiny in managing the game only when the ball was at his feet.
Thus a struggle soon developed for him in the dressing room, and the crisis intensified.
At one point, management realized there was no escape from taking sides, and went with Blackov.
Rangnick was fired in February 2001, which did not surprise anyone, not to mention that the team was then ranked below the red line.
More on Walla!
The headset and the assessments: Rangnick is the one who ousted Ronaldo from the Manchester United squad
To the full article
Huge successes, resentful stars.
Rangnick celebrates (Photo: GettyImages)
Not interested in working with veteran stars
A decade passed until Rangnick had the opportunity to work with another big star. When he reached his second term at Schalke in March 2011, he was required to find a common language with Raul - the Spanish hero who excited all the Glaznerication by actually agreeing to wear the blue uniform after leaving Real Madrid. The striker's first quotes about the coach were positive, but the relationship soon ran aground, and Rangnick's professional demands completely did not fit the veteran scorer's worldview. That summer Raul almost abandoned Beckleburn, was persuaded to stay by management, and by September had already arrived Rangnick's departure. He was mentally exhausted and exhausted, explaining, "I have no energy to work and develop the club."
Another decade passed, and Rangnick signed for Manchester United to take on Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba, among others.
So far, his record with players of this type is very poor and very bad.
Rangnick - it must be said very clearly - does not know how to work with stars, nor does he want to do it.
He has no interest in it.
Late last season, when very advanced contacts were made for his appointment in Milan in place of Stefano Fioli, the German stated: "I do not want veterans. Not because they are not good, but because I prefer to create new value and cultivate talent. I do not see any point in building a team around Zlatan Ibrahimovic "And that's not the point. I'm not necessarily right - it's just my attitude."
And maybe Zlatan is already 40, but Kier is only 32 in the best shape of his life.
For Rangnick, the Danish brake was too old, too, and Milan eventually chose to stay with Fioli.
Learn a lot from the guru.
Tuchel and Klopp (Photo: GettyImages, Joern Pollex)
"Think he's the smartest of them all"
England are now trying to develop great enthusiasm and tremendous expectations around Rangnick's appointment at Old Trafford. Jürgen Klopp describes him as "the best German coach", and their acquaintance goes back to 2001, when Klopp consulted with Rangnick before agreeing to become a coach and player in Mainz. Rangnick even discovered and nurtured Thomas Tuchel, who even played under his guidance in the tiny team called Hall when it was promoted from the Third Division to the Second in 1998. Few remember it today, but Rangnick was also Jürgen Klinsmann's preferred candidate for his assistant on the German national team in 2004, but refused - and so Joachim Lev accepted the position, and the rest is history.
All true. The appreciation for him is enormous, and rightly so. Rangnick is a phenomenal football brain, a kind of guru for all generations of German coaches who came after him. He was ahead of his time, devising even in the lower leagues in the 90s the high pressure method that later changed the team and the entire league. He advocates sweeping and intense offensive football, inspired by the legendary Zaman leap which his Italian teams have conquered and absorbed in quantities, and in some teams it is even forbidden to give back in training. His abilities in identifying the potential of the players are amazing on every scale, and it is doubtful if there is a coach in Europe who is able to promote young people better than him. Still, he is already 63 years old, and the only big club he has coached in his life is Schalke. His first term was short, and he was thrown out by CEO Rudy Asauer who claimed: "Rangnick thinks he's smarter than everyone else." The second term was even shorter.
With all the (justified) appreciation and impressive resume, he is already 63 years old, and the only big club he has coached in his life is Schalke.
Rangnick (Photo: GettyImages, Reinaldo Coddou H./Bongarts)
Dizzying success at Hoffenheim and Leipzig
Where did he really succeed?
In projects defined by German fans as artificial.
In 2006 he signed with the rural Hoffenheim of the multi-millionaire Dietmar Hope, who was trying to make her way from the depths.
"I would not agree to coach any other team in the third division, but the professional powers I was given were so extensive that the challenge could not be given up," he later recalled - and performed miracles and wonders on the way to the top flight in the Bundesliga.
This period, by the way, was also characterized by quite a few quarrels with Hope, and in January 2011 the coach left with a slap in the face when Louise Gustavo was sold behind his back to Bayern Munich.
In the summer of 2012, after recovering from the mental exhaustion he had encountered at Schalke, Rangnick was appointed sporting director of Red Bull's ambitious project. He included control of everything that was done both in Leipzig and Salzburg, and also in the additional branches of the concern such as the New York Red Bulls. As the chief strategist, Rangnick led all the arms to extraordinary success, discovering and promoting dozens of players acquired by Red Bull for ridiculous sums (suffice it to mention Yuzua Kimish who came to Leipzig for 500,000 euros, and Sadio Mana who was signed in Salzburg for 4 million euros). A uniform playing method required the appointment of young coaches with the appropriate approach, and Rangnick excelled greatly in their promotion as well. He did not want to coach himself, but did so twice in Leipzig when there was no choice, in 2015/16 and 2018/19. Once the right coach is located, Rangnick is very happy to return to a managerial position only, because that's what he does best of all. He really does not like the pressure of sitting on the bench during the games.
Will get a tough and tough coach, who will require him to make a defense, and may find out who is stronger.
Ronaldo (Photo: GettyImages, Soccrates Images)
Not suitable for big clubs
On the way to this success Rangnik demanded an uncompromising commitment from everyone who worked under him. Those who know him closely tell of a man of a difficult and impatient nature, who wants all his ideas to be carried out without delay. He demands excellence from himself and everyone around him, and in Germany people like to tell the joke that in his days in Schalke he even explained to the bus driver how to get to the stadium. Rangnick vehemently denies this story, but it well reflects his attitude. He is interested in controlling every little detail.
What should the club give this professor to expect results? Absolute control, industrial silence, total devotion to his ideas, and understanding that this is a long-term project. This is what happened in Hoffenheim and Leipzig, and these are the teams that are tailor-made for Rangnick because they have no tradition, no fan base that requires degrees, and their stated goal is to locate and improve young talent, and also to establish a glorious academy. Give the right tools to Rangnick - and he will build you an empire.
Who is it not suitable for?
For big clubs that want degrees here and now, with a complex internal political structure, lots of ego in management and even more ego in the locker room, and an impatient crowd.
Put Rangnik there - and it's going to end in disaster.
It is not for nothing that his candidacy was never seriously considered at Bayern Munich, it is no coincidence that he collapsed twice at Schalke, and it is no coincidence that all the clashes with top clubs ended in a mutual waiver of adventure.
Rangnick was a candidate for Liverpool back in 2011, and his name ties to many big teams, but nothing came of it.
Milan is just the latest example.
Therefore, after leaving Leipzig, this summer Rangnick signed as sporting director at Lokomotiv Moscow - not exactly a dream destination for "the best coach in Germany" according to Klopp.
Another one who did not like Rangnick, and the list is long.
Raoul (Photo: Reuters)
The opposite of hidink
Locomotive fans are angry at him, by the way. In the short months he spent in Moscow, Rangnick managed to make extensive changes in the squad, throwing out of the team the dominant Polish star Jazzow Krikowiec who moved to direct rival Krasnodar, ousting the popular coach Marko Nikolic, appointing in his place Marcus Gisdol as his favorite. Trafford. This resume is quite jarring, but Locomotive - a very complicated managerial club - is not quite right for a long-term Rangnik style project.
Manchester United are, of course, even less suitable, which is doubly true when you take into account the fact that the German has been appointed as interim coach until the end of the season only. They took the man who must run with him for long distances, and signed him for a few months. It's a bit difficult to understand the logic here, and Rangnick himself refused to sign as interim coach at Chelsea last season when Roman Abramovich was looking for a replacement for Frank Lampard. The Blues once hired Jose Hiddink as interim coach, and he is exactly the right man for these tasks - he is a human relations coach who knows how to put a hand on the players' shoulder and get the most out of the staff at his disposal without striving to change it. Rangnick is the complete opposite, and had no intention of reaching Stamford Bridge. Now, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano, he has been persuaded to do so at Old Trafford because he was promised widespread influence as a consultant for the next two years, but that definition is particularly vague and delusional.
There is no reason to take a genius like Rangnick and label him so negligible.
Something here is completely wrong logically (Photo: GettyImages, Boris Streubel)
What will he do as a consultant?
After all, if the Red Devils really want Rangnick to have widespread influence, why don't they appoint him in advance as the sporting director?
Why do they want him only as a counselor, and why does he himself want to serve only as a counselor?
To whom will he give advice, how will they be translated into deeds, and what will be the return he will receive - financially and especially professionally?
The consultant does not get the credit for the success, but he also has no responsibility.
There is no reason to take a genius like Rangnick and label him so negligible.
Something here is completely illogical, and it starts with the German having to deal with stress he has never experienced in his life.
Blackov, Raoul, Schalke, Assauer - all of these will look like a children's game when Rangnick arrives in Manchester.
Ronaldo completely does not fit his worldview, but he has no authority to move him, and certainly to sell him.
In order to implement a new method of play, an adequate staff, backing from the management and a long-term plan are required.
All of these are missing, and the expectations created by the sympathetic media coverage will only exacerbate the situation.
There is no doubt that Rangnick is a brilliant professional, but Manchester United is not the right place for him.
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