December 07, (THEWILL) – Last Thursday, Ralf Rangnick was granted permission to begin work as Manchester United’s new interim manager. It came three days after United unveiled the 63-year-old as the freshly-appointed manager to guide the Red Devils progressively back to success for the rest of the season. However, due to the approval process and all the necessary paperwork involved in the process of issuing a work permit, Rangnick could not complete it in time to take charge of the team’s next fixture: a home tie against London side, Arsenal.
On the bright side, by not immediately going into a debut game before actually acquainting himself with the raw feel of the Theatre of Dreams that Old Trafford is, Michael Carrick’s extended role as interim manager for the clash with the Gunners will be to the new gaffer’s advantage. It will allow Rangnick the freedom to observe and make early notes of how he intends to proceed with bringing about the best in the squad at his disposal, on the one hand, and where they may need to overhaul with fresh inclusions, on the other, as he takes his place in the stands until their subsequent game against Crystal Palace.
Ahead of that fixture next Sunday, the former Schalke, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig boss will be expected to address the media for the first time in the new role on Friday. Questions will be thrown at him about his team selection and team intentions with the likelihood that the following public can begin to form an opinion of the German tactician’s mindset, football philosophy, nature, eccentricity, behaviour and mentality. This is only typical of these media events and the interrelationship between the press and managers that come into the glamour of football in the English Premier League as it presently operates in the 21st Century.
However, what can be learnt about the man, who has been given the charge to turn the fortunes of United around, beginning in the final moments of the first half of the season goes far beyond what a press conference can uncover. To this end, THEWILL takes a deep dive into the past to articulate a panoramic appreciation of a football tactician so astute in his understanding of football and so comprehensive in his overarching desire to engender a winning formula that he is considered a football “professor” and credited with the creation of a system of high-press that has influenced other coaches in his native Germany and beyond.
The new Red Devils’ manager was born on June 29, 1958 in Backnang, a town in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, roughly 30 kilometres northeast of Stuttgart at the time when it was still within West Germany. After a forgettable professional career, he switched to management early, in 1983 precisely, at the age of 25. It was an age considered prime for most footballers but, Rangnick was already displaying a preference for management that was built on his strategic talents and that was going to mark the remainder of his professional career. It was the initiation of the knowledge and expertise of a man who brought the likes of Emil Forsberg, Naby Keita and Timo Werner all to the same club, while bringing that same club from the lower leagues of German football to the UEFA Champions League.
Rangnick’s professorial qualities can be traced back to his early academic demeanour, which was picked up by the German media when the then-unknown manager of 2. Bundesliga side Ulm appeared on national television, the ZDF Sports Studio TV broadcast in December 1998.
On air, he publicised what even the most sheltered football fan would now recognise as ‘pressing’ to an audience to whom he came across as aloof and remotely transcendental. He was not taken seriously and some may have mocked the young manager’s fantastical ideas calling him “professor” in jest. But, he was confident in his creation and willing to risk his reputation. It worked.
In just two seasons, Rangnick was able to take Ulm to the Bundesliga from the Regionalliga Süd, a team which included a young Thomas Tuchel, at least before he was forced to retire with a knee injury at the age of 24. It was the start for Rangnick to earn a name and respect for himself in Germany.
Rangnick carried that experience further when he took over at VfB Stuttgart, where he became the first team coach at the club he had served as a player and coached at amateur and under-19 levels previously. But, with Stuttgart’s Bundesliga form hovering in the relegation zone by the halfway point and with an unceremonious European exit in February 2001, the club’s management dismissed him. He returned to management the next season at 2. Bundesliga side Hannover 96, with whom he won promotion to the Bundesliga after a 13-year absence. But, history repeated itself as he was dismissed with a nosediving form in their second season of German top flight action.
When, in 2004, Rangnick missed being appointed assistant manager to Joachim Low of the German national team, he accepted to coach Schalke 04 for the 2004/2005 season. Under him, Schalke reached the final of the DFB Pokal Cup Competition and were stopped from victory by Bavarian juggernauts Bayern Munich, who also beat Schalke to the domestic title as well, leaving them as runners up. Although they won the 2005 DFL-Ligapokal and Rangnick first tasted UEFA Champions League grandeur with Schalke, elimination from the group stages of the UCL and an embarrassing knockout of the DFB Pokal Competition cost Rangnick another job in December 2005.
Rangnick then pulled the unprecedented stunt he delivered with Ulm when he began his journey to the Bundesliga from the Regionalliga Süd a second time when he took over 1899 Hoffenheim in the third division for the 2006/2007 season. The team was promoted immediately, and for the first time in their history, they spent the 2007/2008 season in the 2. Bundesliga. But, Hoffenheim’s second-place result in 2007/2008 secured the club and Rangnick promotion to the Bundesliga for the following season, exactly as he has done for Ulm in 2000. Unfortunately, Rangnick resigned as head coach of Hoffenheim on January 2, 2011, citing the transfer of midfielder Luiz Gustavo to Bayern Munich, which he had not been told of, as the cause for his departure.
In March 2011, Rangnick was named as the replacement for Felix Magath as coach of Schalke 04, a second stint for the German. He led his old club to their first UEFA Champions League semi-finals by defeating Inter Milan but was stopped from reaching the finals by present club United. However, in September 2011, Rangnick stepped down due to chronic fatigue syndrome, as he admitted that he did not have “the necessary energy to be successful and to develop the team and the club”.
In June 2012, Rangnick became the Director of Football for Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig. Under his leadership, both clubs won multiple trophies and reached the UEFA Champions League. But, drawn by the allure of active football management, Rangnick announced in February 2015 that he would be taking over as coach at RB Leipzig for the 2015/2016 season. Resigning as Director of Football, the tactician again did what he knew best and secured promotion to the Bundesliga for Leipzig in May 2016. That same month, Ralph Hasenhüttl was announced as his successor as he had done his part.
Although Rangnick returned to RB Leipzig as manager again on July 9, 2018, he was not able to keep them in the UCL. Even after they dropped to the UEFA Europa League, they were unable to make it beyond the knockout stages. Yet, they still finished the domestic Bundesliga season in third place, booking yet another ticket to Europe’s most elite football competition for the 2018/2018 campaign.
In 2019, he was promoted to Head of Sport and Development at Red Bull GmbH, overseeing global football initiatives, including New York Red Bulls and takeover of Red Bull Bragantino. But he resigned from Red Bull in 2020, with a reported move to Milan failing during negotiations. He then signed a three-year contract as manager of Sports and Development with Lokomotiv Moscow in the Russian Premier League on July 6, this year and remained in that position until United came calling in November.
Over this illustrious managerial career, Rangnick developed his pressing, now fancifully referred to as “Gegenpressing” to perfection. It was a style that he himself first experienced with Valeriy Lobanovskiy’s Dynamo Kiev in February 1983 at 25. Lobanovskiy’s relentless, organised pressing tactics would form the basis of Rangnick’s own philosophy, one he would later implement at these string of clubs he managed including Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.
Combining it with the lessons he learnt from Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan’s zonal marking system, Rangnick evolved a philosophy that helped to revolutionise German football, inspiring a generation of coaches, including Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, and ultimately bringing him to the Manchester United managerial dugout that seems like a poisoned chalice since the exit of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Yet, this tactical approach, which requires high-intensity pressing in order to keep pressure on the other team and win the ball back quickly, coupled with tight marking in defence in order to neutralise a counter-attacking threat early, has already had people asking if the current crop of United’s players can cope, with a certain superstar Portuguese forward’s name being mentioned, or if certain sacrifices, like starting him on the bench, will have to be made for the sake of the philosophy to begin to take root and yield fruit as it has done throughout Rangnick’s storied managerial career.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
