At a time when rivals have recruited managers previously in charge of clubs such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan, Manchester United appointed two men who had most recently been the manager of Molde and the director of football from Lokomotiv Moscow — the type of CVs that might qualify you for an interview at a middling Championship club. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at least steadied the ship as a caretaker manager. Ralf Rangnick has not.

There’s a huge jump to Rangnick being an “elite manager” alongside three coaches who have all won league titles in multiple countries. At the top level of management, Rangnick has won one DFB-Pokal in Germany — so his honours list is comparable to that of Harry Redknapp. Being historically influential doesn’t truly count for anything when it comes to getting results.

Rangnick was heralded as the pressing master, the man who would guide United towards their future proactive approach. Absolutely nothing has changed. In terms of opposition passes per defensive action (PPDA, a decent measure of pressing), United ranked 14th in the league under Solskjaer and 14th under Rangnick. Between mid-February and May, they won just two of their nine league games, both disjointed team performances saved by Ronaldo hat-tricks.

Ultimately, a huge red flag was that, in the decade before Manchester United appointed Rangnick, he had been appointed as a manager twice. The people who appointed him were Ralf Rangnick and Ralf Rangnick. He had been linked with other clubs, certainly, but there’s perhaps a reason none actually appointed him.

The most ludicrous thing about this is that everyone acknowledged the structure at Manchester United was already deeply confused, yet many believed that involving Rangnick would help. Let’s break this down: Rangnick had been working as a long-term director of football but was appointed as a short-term coach (strange in itself), given some level of influence over who would be his successor (even stranger), although he threatened to appoint himself (still following?) and then would be retained as some form of consultant, although his actual role was never revealed, was probably never worked out, and possibly will not even exist (let’s move on).

The major error in all this is the refusal to acknowledge that football management is fundamentally about dealing with players, with people. You prove your capability by managing week in, week out. Dealing with the setbacks, working with individuals, keeping team spirit high and acting as the figurehead. Klopp and Guardiola are revolutionary tacticians but also excellent leaders, and they’ve proved it near-constantly over the last decade. So have several others, not on Klopp and Guardiola’s level, but far more qualified than Rangnick.

Rangnick, on the other hand, spent the best part of a decade not managing, and that’s why appointing him as first-team manager was one of the oddest things any Premier League club has ever done. The whole thing about Rangnick, the thing that made him such a fascinating story, was that he exerted a major influence on football despite never being a top manager. The final part of that became forgotten but is now clearer than ever.

reyu wrote: ↑13 Apr 2022, 09:48 Jeigu Ten Hag nori valdyti visus klubo procesus ir ateina čia tik su tokiomis garantijomis, tai kokią rolę tuomet klube vaidins Rangnickas? Gal spaudos konferencijose atstovaus klubą? Bet kad teko girdėti, jog ir pats Ten Hag ten mėgsta suspurdėti.

Wat Wat wrote: ↑10 Jan 2022, 13:54 Nemazai inside'o eina is United, kad Pochettino ir top priority.
Kokiais aspektais Pochas yra geriau uz Ten Haga?

Honza wrote: ↑03 Dec 2021, 15:58 Aš asmeniškai daug logikos nematau ieškot trenerio trumpam. Nelabai kas išvis taip nedaro. Na nebent Realas Los Calacticos laikais.

Wat Wat wrote: ↑25 Nov 2021, 20:11 Ir su PSG nuolat bottlines CL.

evizu wrote: ↑25 Nov 2021, 17:57 Raso, kad sutiko tik su salyga, kad tures kazkokia strategine role ateityje.

Kas jis per vienas, koki futbola zaidzia ir kuom jis geras sprendimas?

So far, Rangnick has brought in around 10 staff members that he knew previously, including head coach Markus Gisdol.

In sporting matters, the club has been run entirely by him that a way can be only considered dictatorial.

Michael Carrick will now take charge of the team for forthcoming games, while the club looks to appoint an interim manager to the end of the season.

Kevin de Bruyne: "The day before a game we usually train tactically, based on how the opponent play. Before #mufc, Pep [Guardiola] said 'We don't know how they're going to play. We shall see'. And we stopped training after 10 minutes." #mulive [midmid podcast, @HLNinEngeland]