(Photo by The Guardian)
Well, this is typical. I had a video recorded surrounding the speculation of who Manchester United’s next manager will be after the dismissal of Ole Gunnar Solksjaer following the 4-1 thumping at the hands of Watford, when it is announced that The Red Devils are close to appointing 63-year-old Ralf Rangnick as interim manager at Old Trafford. So that video is out the window, but this gives us an opportunity to strike whilst the iron is hot and investigate who Rangnick is as a manager and what sort of changes he is likely to implement on United.
In a seemingly unprecedented manner, Manchester United released an interview with Ole after his dismissal, reviewing some of the highs of his managerial stint at the club and it gets rather emotional towards the end of the 11-minute video, with Solksjaer nearly breaking into tears and making me feel really bad for wanting him to leave. All jokes aside, Solksjaer’s legacy as a Manchester United player will not be tarnished by his managerial stint, a lethal finisher that gave us one of the most important goals in the club’s history. But the man should never have been given the job in the first place, he had little to no managerial pedigree in him and he had quite frankly a horrendous set of tactics that always saw us conceding early and trying to catch up with other teams not only in games, but in the title picture and fighting for top 4. But now it seems like these days of no tactics could well and truly be behind us if Rangnick is appointed interim manager until the end of the season, then transitioning into a consultant role behind the scenes for another two years after that.
Now, I am going to be completely honest here, I had never really heard of Rangnick before the last few days when he was linked with the job, but now with this being close to confirmed, I have been researching the man religiously to see if he is going to be a good fit at United, and I am very impressed with what I have seen. Rangnick is currently the head of sports and development at Lokomotiv Moscow and is expected to take over the hotseat at Old Trafford after Michael Carrick leads United out against Chelsea on Sunday. He is one of the most respected names in German football, overseeing the rise of Red Bull over football dynasty in his roles as head coach and sporting director of RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg, with managers like Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann being some of his biggest admirers (which is saying something). After diving a little deeper into the styles of football he plays with his teams, I discovered that he is recognised as one of the first people to implement the ‘gegenpress’ into modern football, a high pressing and thoroughly energetic style of football that seems to be working wonders for Jurgen Klopp right now with his Liverpool side.
I think this style of football would be a great change in pace for United, as I am sick and tired of seeing players switching off and not pressing when opportunities are there to regain possession. I think with this style of play we are going to see a lot more from players like Van De Beek, Bailly, and Cavani in the starting XI and hopefully he will get rid of some dead weight (not looking at anyone in particular *cough* Maguire *cough*).
Questions are going to arise over the future of Michael Carrick and the current backroom staff at United, with Carrick taking the reins for the crucial game in the Champions League away at Villarreal, with a 2-0 win away securing them a place in the last 16 of the competition. Despite the score line, the match was not comfortable at all to watch, with David De Gea being called on multiple times to save United from some suspect defending. Fred had a rare-good game to go on his record, being involved in both goals but one performance doesn’t make up for the multitude of shocking performances in a United shirt. Ronaldo stepped up on the European stage yet again producing his 6th goal in 5 Champions League games this season, and a welcome goal for Jadon Sancho got his United scoring account underway, with an impressive performance showing glimpses of why United were so desperate to get him over the last couple of seasons. I think it would be nice for Carrick to remain at United after Rangnick potentially takes over on Monday, but I hope Rangnick brings in his own experienced backroom staff to revolutionise United’s training, tactics, and team.
The real talk here on top of him being the interim manager is talks around him transitioning into another role at the end of the season for two years as a consultant with power over the major footballing decisions at the club. Yes please. This is the sort of man we have been screaming for at Manchester United ever since David Gill left after Ferguson retired, a man who knows his football and uses it to make good decisions for the benefit of the club. Ed Woodward is simply not that man, and the cheek of him to stay in the role this long after he said he would step down. Now don’t get me wrong, as a businessman, he has a place at Manchester United in terms of the finances but putting him in charge of all the footballing decisions is not the role he should be taking, with Rangnick’s pedigree making him a perfect fit for the job, and the fact that he is demanding this sort of power says a lot about the type of man he is, and he belongs at Manchester United. With this news, there will still be a search for a permanent manager at the end of the season to take over at Old Trafford, with Ten Haag still being the man I would like to take over the hotseat, but I would take Pochettino or Zidane if Rangnick is behind them in the boardroom and with some world class coaches instead of Mckenna and Phelan. This is certainly an exciting time for Manchester United and this could see us really put in a good shift going towards the second half of the season, could we possibly emulate what Chelsea did last season, sack their manager mid-season, and go on to win the Champions League? Only time will tell.
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