🧠 What will Ralf Rangnick's Man Utd look like this season and beyond? | OneFootball

Just over a decade on from leading Schalke to a Champions League semi-final defeat at Old Trafford, Ralf Rangnick is set to return to the Theatre of Dreams.

It’s odd that he has been handed the gig, considering that Champions League semi-final was the only one of his career.

Rangnick does not have a CV full of trophies or big jobs, but he’s now tasked with correcting the course of Manchester United. How has that happened?

Well, Rangnick’s CV doesn’t quite do him justice. The German has inspired Jürgen Klopp — who named the new Manchester United boss as his “first choice” to lead Germany after Joachim Löw’s departure — and played a huge role in the education of the likes of Julian Nagelsmann, Thomas Tuchel, Marco Rose, Ralph Hasenhüttl and more.

In hiring Rangnick, Manchester United are buying into an idea, an identity. A new way of structuring the club.

His tactics in his own words

“Our football is heavy metal, rock and roll, it’s not a slow waltz,” Rangnick told the Coaches’ Voice last year while Head of Football at Red Bull.

“We hate square passes, back passes, just having the ball ourselves doesn’t make sense.

“We like to press high, with a very intense counter-pressure.

“It is fast, proactive, attacking, counter-attacking, counter-pressing. Exciting and entertaining football.”

How will that look?

It won’t be boring.

Rangnick wants the game to look chaotic, for the teams to constantly be swapping possession. For him, every time the opponent has the ball, it’s a chance to win it back and launch a counter-attack.

So United players will be instructed to run hard and encouraged to take risks. Losing possession is not a problem.

RB Leipzig finished third in the Bundesliga in 2018/19 with Rangnick in the dugout but, unlike most top sides, didn’t look to keep the ball. Only three teams in the league had a lower pass completion. Seven teams completed more passes in total but only three completed more passes into the opposition penalty area.

The ball will go forward quickly. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, it’s a chance to pounce and win it back.

In midfield there won’t be a great emphasis on creation but on aggression. That Fred and Scott McTominay combination seems likely to stay but their tasks will suit them more than they have until now, providing a solid, aggressive base for the front four to thrive ahead of and the fullbacks to fly outside.

The big question is how Rangnick uses his so-called wide players. His Leipzig would usually line up in a 4-2-2-2, with the nominal wingers playing as a pair of number 10s and two wing-backs bombing on beyond them. Is that something Aaron Wan-Bissaka can do effectively?

With a focus on high-energy players, with youth preferred, there could be teething problems for Cristiano Ronaldo as he and Rangnick adapt to each other, while the appointment could mean we see more of Amad Diallo, Donny van de Beek and Jesse Lingard.

Club-building consultant

And at the end of the season, Rangnick will reportedly become a “consultant” for the club.

How much say he has remains to be seen, but the fact United have gone for him and he has accepted the job suggests they are ready to listen and have him mould their identity, on and off the pitch.

While in charge of TSG Hoffenhem, Rangnick remodelled the entire club. They developed their academy, their scouting, their analysis departments as he lead them from the German third tier to the Bundesliga. There was a common thread throughout the club, a philosophy.

That went one step further with Rangnick’s work running the football operations of the Red Bull clubs.

“For me it has always been very clear, there needs to be someone in the club who is responsible for the club values and guidelines,” Rangnick explained to ESPN last year.

“Someone who is in charge not only for the corporate identity, but also for the corporate behaviour of the entire organisation. In this context, I like to speak about three C’s in football: capital or cash, concept and competence.”

Manchester United have plenty of cash and Rangnick should bring plenty of competence. And more than anything, he will look to implement a concept.

“It is certainly helpful in football and in business to have some money at your disposal, however, this money will not help you if you do not have the other two Cs in your portfolio.

“In order to be sustainably successful, you need to have a plan on how to develop the club and the best possible and competent people to implement the concept and plan.

“Those three Cs were the foundation of our [Red Bull’s] sporting success paving the way for the development of players with quality and increased market value at a factor of 10 or sometimes even higher.”