I'd rather we stick with Rangnick if the alternative is Pochettino. He is learning the league quickly and seems to be ruthless in dealing with the players. Recognizes the problems correctly and deals with the media well. Give him money to spend this summer and next winter and we are in.
Ralf Rangnick | ex-interim manager | does anyone rate him?
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Yeah you're right, it was better when we were getting hammered 4-0 and 5-0 most weekends.
Rangnick Slams Ronaldo as Not Coach Material
Rangnick Accuses Ronaldo of Not Putting Team Before Himself
Rangnick 'Anger' at Profligate Ronaldo
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Why does it take him this long to figure things out?
I felt the team were passing forward more than previous games which was good to see. Obviously need to be better at ball retention but it was good to see.
He deserves credit for Elanga getting a chance. Put him on the bench because of performances in training, let him come on as a sub to impress, rewarded him with a couple of starts and a goal. It's more youth development than we've seen in the past 12 months.
While by no means exciting to watch I believe to see some improvements in our set-up and how we use the spaces. It seems that the players are tried to move the ball quicker, but are not used to it respectively some are not good enough and therefore we often lose the ball.
Also I give him credit for at least thinking about the idea of benching certain players in case he believes it is the right thing to do. I am not 100% happy with his selections as I hoped he will us players like Sancho, Donny, Lingard, Martial a bit more as those are quite good with the ball.
So overall not the step forward I hoped for, but some positive signs.
Also I give him credit for at least thinking about the idea of benching certain players in case he believes it is the right thing to do. I am not 100% happy with his selections as I hoped he will us players like Sancho, Donny, Lingard, Martial a bit more as those are quite good with the ball.
So overall not the step forward I hoped for, but some positive signs.
I think some people are forgetting how dreadful we were at the start of the season. Little shape to the team, no patterns of play, lots of individual errors, sloppy goals given away and some humilating defeats.
I think it's a similar pattern to Tuchel at Chelsea when he 1st came in. RR has looked to stop the rot. Cut the defensive errors out and give the team a better chance to win games. I think he's now trying to find a better balance to be more progressive going forward.
I think it's a similar pattern to Tuchel at Chelsea when he 1st came in. RR has looked to stop the rot. Cut the defensive errors out and give the team a better chance to win games. I think he's now trying to find a better balance to be more progressive going forward.
Hopefully he can further parlay this result (the second half) into a bit more locker room cred.
Sorry, I'm fully behind RR and all that, but that is an absurd depiction. This is nothing whatsoever like when Tuchel came in. He transformed Chelsea instantly - already in the first game against Wolves, after less than 24 hours in charge, the blueprint was already in place and being visibly implemented, as it still is without really too much in the way of further adjustment. And results were pretty much immediate.
We on the other hand are, and this is being generous, starting to see some signs of development after seven games. If we compare what we're seeing to what we saw in the first games this season and throughout last season, there are still more similarities than differences. "Little shape to the team, no patterns of play, lots of individual errors, sloppy goals given away and some humilating defeats" haven't become much less of an accurate description than it was before.
Also, overall performance isn't really markedly better than in, say, the first three PL games this season - and if anything significantly less impressive than in our better games over the past couple of years. Of course, we are much better than we were during Ole's collapse phase, but already Carrick dragged us out of that, and those games were after all an extreme outlier. We are not currently a better football team than we were a year ago.
But there's hope. RR knows what he's doing, I think.
"This long?" The impatience is unbelievable. He is 6 games in, with no pre season.
I don’t care. He would have been monitoring United before Ole got the sack. The problems have Always been there and everyone saw that a 3 man midfield was the way to go instead of Bruno as second striker. We need to be perfect moving forward. We can’t drop any more points till the end of February when our easy fixture come to an end.
Because he is bringing in a new system, half way into a season, it’s not football manager
This will take time to perfect, also doesn’t have amazing midfielders.
If you can’t see the improvement in villa first 60 minutes and Brentford second half then you’re blind.
brentford away is not an easy place
You should just tell the players that, we cant drop any points, sounds really easy.
We probably will drop points because they players I imagine have a super fragile mentality
They got their previous manager sacked who they all appeared to like.
It’s not going to be easy but they are starting to play like a team again, we had some awful games at the start but the last two are performances to build on
6 games, you need to chill out
Showed a lot of balls with that Ronaldo sub and subsequent comments. Something we’ve been lacking for years, and sends a message to the rest of the the team.
It helps that he’s got a free pass in some ways as interim but feck it, whatever works if it mean he regains control of the dressing room and instils a bit more discipline.
Football wise first half was dog shit, same old rubbish and inability to string two passes together, headless chicken defending but we looked like a different team in the second half. His formation change worked too.
It helps that he’s got a free pass in some ways as interim but feck it, whatever works if it mean he regains control of the dressing room and instils a bit more discipline.
Football wise first half was dog shit, same old rubbish and inability to string two passes together, headless chicken defending but we looked like a different team in the second half. His formation change worked too.
I've been a big fan of us changing to a proper 4 3 3 for years, but even I recognize that it may not have been that simple for Ralf. When he first came he wanted to implement his 4 2 2 2, which is right as its the formation he knows but after being hands on with the players he probably realised they are not suited to it (physically, technically and mentally). After we started to struggle we did the 4 2 3 1 for 1 game which I assume was to give us a formation we were comfortable in because we needed a win and looked to be losing confidence again. Since then the last 2 games we've played with Bruno as an 8. So in reality he hasnt taken long to make this change, it has followed a fairly reasonable path and amount of time to make this change in Bruno's position. If anything I think Ralf so far has shown himself to be adaptable and willing tactically to make changes.
Agreed.
They drew Liverpool, outplayed Chelsea and lost only 1-0 to City this season.
They even won against Arsenal but that means nothing imo.
We really should have hired you.
Progress indeed. What's best for United will always have to come first to make sure this Ronaldo farewell tour is not a misery.
Dare I say it but I genuinely think Pogba will elevate us and push us up a gear or two. That pass from Fred last night to Elanga is what Pogba does multiple times a game and that’s the missing link.
We wont sign a midfielder this January because Pogba is almost ready.
We wont sign a midfielder this January because Pogba is almost ready.
Also started Maguire on the bench instead of doing an Ole and putting a half fit Maguire straight into the starting XI.
This is what worries me the most. Why would he ever try 4222 formation after assessing the squad that we have. He knows Bruno is an important player for us that he most likely won’t drop so where did he think Bruno would fit in this tactic?
He is a caretaker manager and his roll is too steady the ship and salvage a top 4 position. From this moment on it is very achievable.
We blame the players for everything but I’m here to tell you we have a very good squad. We were on our way till we brought in a certain player who has disrupted our squad balance. I’m not saying we would be first in the league but I’m pretty sure we would be top 3 if we recruited better this summer. It’s no fault of Rangnick but his Job now is too make the right decision to limit Ronaldo’s involvement in the team for better squad balance.
I mean, it wasn't hard to improve on that first half performance was it? It was dire.
This team has been quite capable of playing well for short periods of time, that's well documented. Not that the second half yesterday was anything special. It was the kind of response which has been typical of us throughout the past couple of years. The only thing is we were clinical for a change.
Ralfy said a bit more on the issue, the crux of it is covered in the tweets, but figured I'd post it:
In the post-match press conference, Rangnick added: “The only reaction I got was, ‘Why me? Why did you take me off?’
“I said to him ‘Listen, I had to take the decision in the interest of the team and the club. We had exactly the same situation five days ago at Villa Park, being 2-0 up with 15 minutes to play and we didn't want to make the same mistake again’.
“I decided to switch to a back five with Harry Maguire and bring on Marcus (Rashford) as another fast winger on the right hand side. I think it was the right decision.
“Cristiano was not happy. He is a goalscorer. He would have wished to stay on and maybe score a goal himself but for us it was more important to be compact, to make sure that we have enough legs and also strong headers to defend their set pieces.
“When we had scored the third goal, I said exactly that to him. I said, ‘Look, Cristiano, I understand you are still ambitious, you want to score yourself but maybe in a couple of years when you’re a head coach yourself, you will hopefully make the same decision and be in the same role I was in today after 75 minutes’.”
Rangnick also clarified that he has “no issues” with the Portugal international.
He added: “I didn't expect him to hug me after being substituted. I know how goalscoring players think and I had to make this decision. I have no issues with Cristiano. He was coming back from injury and hadn't played for one-and-a-half weeks. We had the likes of Rashford and Anthony Martial on the bench so why not use it? I would make the same decision again.”
The 36-year-old did not play in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa due to a hip flexor injury, the only time he has not started a Premier League game under Rangnick.
The head coach said: “I've been here now for six weeks and I've never had an issue with Cristiano. We had a discussion before the Villa cup game about his injury and we agreed not to use him.
“He was available again today and we decided to play him from the start. The most important thing is that we win games and this comes first.”
Tbf to Ralf from the outside looking in you would think we would have the players to play a 4 2 2 2 (sancho, bruno CAMs, mcfred energetic CMs, multiple strikers to choose from), plus it is his preferred style and not too far off the 4 2 4 that Ole was practically playing. After a couple games he realised the players were not adapting and shifted. I think rather than saying why did he take so long to change things, we should give him credit for adapting very quickly during a busy period and whilst we were hit with covid. After all it literally has been 6 games, 2 of which were 4 2 2 2 and two of which were 4 3 3. Now I don't think Ralf is a Klop, pep level manager but I think hes done well so far. Nothing spectacular though, which should be expected from a caretaker manager.
He tried the 4222 formation because his first recourse was turning to what he believes is the best system. I don't see why that wouldn't fit Bruno, if we had been able to implement it as a team. In fact, it should play more to his strengths than 433 does. But you can't make that work unless you can implement the press successfully as a team, and unless you get much more consistent attacking contributions from the full backs, neither of which we did.
Pure counter-attacking Ole-ball last night. 
Massive supporter of the new manager, but after the first half last night i was beginning to doubt my judgement.
Im not sure how a team can switch from being utterly pathetic for 45 mins- world beaters for 25 mins then back to dross again last 10. It must be a mentality thing. It was the same under OLE for long periods.
I trust in Ralf, sadly i dont trust some of these players.
Im not sure how a team can switch from being utterly pathetic for 45 mins- world beaters for 25 mins then back to dross again last 10. It must be a mentality thing. It was the same under OLE for long periods.
I trust in Ralf, sadly i dont trust some of these players.
Had to admit, I was losing faith. We seemed to be going further and further away from what made Rangnick, Rangnick. The FA Cup tie against Villa looked to me like a poor imitation of Ole's tactics. It looked like Rangnick was on the verge of giving up and just playing 4-2-3-1 with the front 4 and back 6 split by a canyon.
However, in the last two games we suddenly have discovered some semblance of shape. We press in a mid-block, in a coordinated way, everyone knowing what they have to do and when they have to do it. Against Villa it was good for 45 minutes to an hour. Tonight it was good for an hour to 80 minutes. All of a sudden we see progress. The players seem to be responding to what Ralf wants and he's making the right calls.
Suddenly things don't seem quite so bad. With all the negativity, and stupid headlines circling the club, you have to admire how Ralf has managed the situation while still getting his methods into the heads of our players.
However, in the last two games we suddenly have discovered some semblance of shape. We press in a mid-block, in a coordinated way, everyone knowing what they have to do and when they have to do it. Against Villa it was good for 45 minutes to an hour. Tonight it was good for an hour to 80 minutes. All of a sudden we see progress. The players seem to be responding to what Ralf wants and he's making the right calls.
Suddenly things don't seem quite so bad. With all the negativity, and stupid headlines circling the club, you have to admire how Ralf has managed the situation while still getting his methods into the heads of our players.
Kinda, it's sort of what he wants to do though, goals quickly after winning possession. That's how his Liepzig teams did it. It's easiest to score when you've just won possession as the opposition is bent out of shape. Below is a quote from Laurie Whitwell's article in the Athletic.Pure counter-attacking Ole-ball last night.
I was hard-pressed to see any real structural difference between the two halves yesterday. The difference I suspect was mainly one of sharpness. RR highlighted it too in his post-game comments - how we consistently lost 50/50s in the first half, and that we didn't really make any major adjustments at the interval in terms of posture. That seems to make a huge difference for us. We have such attacking talent that much can be made from little. We scored three beautiful goals without really dominating the game in the second half.
And maybe "Ole's tactics" wasn't as big a factor as some would have you believe.
The fact we have short periods of looking good and then looking awful says to me it's more about the players. We constantly look to the manager just because he is the one that ultimately gets sacked or continues on the basis of performance but the core of this side has performed poorly under a few managers. In fact for the majority of this side apart from Ronaldo we have more evidence that they are inconsistent and often not good enough players than we do they they're genuine quality or representative of what we need to compete for trophies.
If they can turn it on for 20 mins here and there it suggests we don't have a great ethic in this team. It's not about 4-3-3s or tactics, yesterday was as simple as coming out and competing in the second half. We started winning second balls, passing with authority - we completely lack initiative as a group to set the tone like this. We just wade into games with a wait and see approach. People will say "the manager has to motivate them" which is true, but maybe you can only lead these donkeys to water.
This is what the manager means when he says "being present." Just odd phraseology.
If they can turn it on for 20 mins here and there it suggests we don't have a great ethic in this team. It's not about 4-3-3s or tactics, yesterday was as simple as coming out and competing in the second half. We started winning second balls, passing with authority - we completely lack initiative as a group to set the tone like this. We just wade into games with a wait and see approach. People will say "the manager has to motivate them" which is true, but maybe you can only lead these donkeys to water.
This is what the manager means when he says "being present." Just odd phraseology.
All this “it’s the manager” vs “it’s the players” stuff missed a really important factor. Confidence and self-belief. As soon as we scored yesterday we looked a decent team. And this squad has put in some great performance in the past. The tricky bit has been building and sustaining a unit who will consistently play like they know they’re the better team and don’t crumble in adversity or (our specialty under Ole) sleepwalk our way onto the pitch and get overrun in the opening period. Drilling the right intensity and self-belief into a squad isn’t easy, especially for a manager they think won’t stick around. But I think we’ve seen signs of this developing in the last couple of games. There were spells against Vill and Brentford where we looked like a properly dominant team. The more that happens the more the players will believe in themselves. It becomes self-perpetuating. Next few games could be make or break for the season.
Slow and steady improvements. We started slow, had about ten minutes of controlling the game and then fell apart. After half time we were in control. A few shaky moments but we started winning second balls and building better attacks.
We’re still getting cut apart from time to time, but we are more solid than the end of Ole’s reign. Now we’re getting cut apart because we’re actually trying to do something in our pressing, but the team just don’t have it quite down yet due to a worrying lack of intensity - but at least you can see some semblance of a method to our pressing. Last night's first half was worrying, but remember Chelsea and Liverpool both suffered the same treatment and walked away with fewer points.
Since Wolves every game has been slightly better. Just give it till mid Feb and there will be noticeable improvements. We aren’t going to be bringing anyone in during this window purely because there isn’t a good 6 available. So Ralf just has to work with what he’s got and he’s understanding the team more and more.
We’re still getting cut apart from time to time, but we are more solid than the end of Ole’s reign. Now we’re getting cut apart because we’re actually trying to do something in our pressing, but the team just don’t have it quite down yet due to a worrying lack of intensity - but at least you can see some semblance of a method to our pressing. Last night's first half was worrying, but remember Chelsea and Liverpool both suffered the same treatment and walked away with fewer points.
Since Wolves every game has been slightly better. Just give it till mid Feb and there will be noticeable improvements. We aren’t going to be bringing anyone in during this window purely because there isn’t a good 6 available. So Ralf just has to work with what he’s got and he’s understanding the team more and more.
Didn't you decide against Ole very early? I seem to recall you were one of his biggest critics right from the start so why exactly are you giving others a hard time for doing what you did previously?
Like the way he explains why he has done something. No pandering to the players, explaining it straight.
Agreed. The concern I have is that we're going through a very straight forward part of fixtures right now. It's been a relatively easy learning curve for Rangnick. We have another months worth of fixtures before we hit the same spell of fixtures that got Ole sacked. The clock is ticking and we're running out of time, our form needs to click quickly as the final two months of the season is probably the hardest we've ever faced in recent times.
This is such a wum post
Would have loved to have heard your views on Klopp or Pep in their first seasons.
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