Manchester United's disappointing start to the season at best, poor at worst has cost Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, sacked a week ago, his post.
To ensure the interim "
until the end of the season
", the Red Devils appointed Ralph Rangnick.
The 63-year-old German coach is leaving Lokomotiv Moscow, where he had been sporting director since last summer.
Michael Carrick, Solskjaer's deputy, will make way for him on the bench once his work visa is finalized.
But who is the mysterious Rangnick, he whose CV as a trainer can leave you doubtful?
Here are 5 things to know about the man who needs to straighten out Manchester United, 8th in the Premier League, in the short term.
To discover
Premier League fixtures and results
Premier League standings
Achievement in Schalke but few trophies
Former midfielder with a modest career, Ralph Rangnick only needs a small shelf to store all his trophies: an Intertoto Cup with Stuttgart (2000) and a League Cup (2005), a German Cup and a German Supercup (2011) with Schalke 04. It was precisely with the Royal Blues that Rangnick had his best hours as a coach. Appointed in March 2011, he guides Schalke two weeks later to a resounding victory at Inter Milan in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League (2-5). In the semifinals, the Germans surrendered against… Manchester United (0-2, 4-1). Before the two titles mentioned. He left in September of the same year for health reasons. Express mission successful. A good omen before what awaits him at the Red Devils.
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Stankovic's 50-meter half-volley with Inter Milan against Schalke in 2011 (2-5)
An empire at Red Bull
In the summer of 2012, Rangnick got back into shape and dons the costume of director of football for the Red Bull company.
He then manages the clubs of Salzburg (Austria) and especially Leipzig (Germany), where he will even occupy the bench for the 2015-16 and 2018-19 season.
Under his tutelage, Leipzig rose from the German 4th Division to the Bundesliga podium, with a German Cup final in 2019. He retired again from the coaching world and returned to the backstage, at Red Bull, overseeing New Yorks. Red Bulls in the United States.
If the Austrian company, famous for its energy drinks, weighs so heavily in football today, it is in part thanks to Rangnick.
Football thinker and pioneer of "gegenpressing"
We could speak of revolutionary.
When he coached Ulm between 1997 and 1999, his team "
was probably the only one in Germany who played zonal football with pressing aimed at the ball,
" Rangnick told
So Foot
in March 2020. Adept at zonal marking, Rangnick was overwhelmed by his meeting in the 1980s with legendary Dynamo Kiev coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi.
The German was one of the main instigators of "counter-pressing", that is to say, pressing the opponent as soon as the ball is lost in order to recover it as high as possible.
The stratagem, popularized by Jürgen Klopp in Dortmund and then Liverpool, is now integrated by all high-level teams.
"
I think that the intellectual reflection of the players will become even more important in the years to come, that the game will be decided in even smaller spaces and times
, ”predicted Rangnick, a great football intellectual.
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Klopp (Liverpool) on Rangnick at MU: "
A good coach is coming to England
"
Praised by Klopp, Tuchel and Nagelsmann
What bad news for Liverpool, Manchester United's great rival! “
Unfortunately, a good coach is coming to England,
” Jürgen Klopp, Reds coach, joked at a press conference this week. As has been said, the winner of the 2019 Champions League and the 2020 Premier League owes a lot to Rangnick. But maybe not as much as Thomas Tuchel who… played under his orders in Ulm. “
He helped me a lot
, thanked the Chelsea coach this week.
He was one of the main figures who convinced me to train. He had a huge influence on us
(the players)
because he showed us that it was possible to defend an entire opposing team in the zone.
"For Julian Nagelsmann, who succeeded him at Leipzig before joining Bayern Munich, Rangnick is"
an exceptional coach
".
For the moment, the experienced manager is unanimous.
He almost coached AC Milan in 2020
With 4 defeats in 6 Serie A matches, Marco Giampolo left AC Milan in October 2019. Stefano Pioli and his lackluster CV replaced him at a moment's notice. The Rossonneri then raised their heads and, after the interruption due to the Covid-19, ended the season with 12 unbeaten matches including 9 wins. What was the surprise of the fans when Pioli was extended, when all the rumors pointed to the arrival of Ralph Rangnick in Italy. “
I was contacted at the end of October, when Milan was 14th
, revealed Rangnick at
Corriere della Serra at the
end of August 2020.
Then Pioli won 9 out of 12 matches, so the case was over.
We agreed that changing, at this point, would not make sense in the short term.
And I don't know the medium to long term.
“At Manchester United, Rangnick knows he is committed for 7 months and not one more.
