Ralf Rangnick | ex-interim manager | does anyone rate him?

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

We're certainly not carrying Ronaldo, and Martial, Lingard and Pogba barely get a sniff of football, so their gegenpressing and work rate don't really matter. I would certainly not consider Greenwood a "prima donna." Think this lot is more confused than refusing to work and getting all prima donna on us.

It's an extremely strange line of argument. For some reason whenever we look crap on the pitch (something we've done under 4 different managers and largely completely different squads), it's always the players being prima donnas. Same argument I'm trying to wrap my head around in that "Ralf should play the kids" thread.

If we had Salah and Mane up front right now, people would probably be watching them look confused in this mess and saying they "can't play pressing football".

 

[Amadaeus]

Erm, who are all these prima donnas we're carrying??? Maybe you see Rashford that way, ok. Ronaldo? If he is, he's putting a lot of balls in the auld onion bag, and has basically carried us to where we are in the Prem and CL. Bruno? Mayyyybe one could say so, but seems more like a frustrated captain-ish talent pissed off with his and our fall in form. But who else? Harry for all his faults this year is certainly not, nor anyone in our back line, especially not Varane nor Lindalof nor Shaw nor Bisaka nor Telles nor Dalot. Our midfield? You can't possibly consider Fred nor McTominay nor Matic. If you're referring to Pogba, he's hardly played for us. And no way Cavani nor Greenwood nor De Gea nor Sancho. Who else plays much for us who you would consider a prima donna?

Who are ALL these mythical "far too many" prima donnas United are carrying?? I keep hearing punters comment on this and I don't get it. It's not like we're full of these handwaving, class-oozing Berbatosses.

Good post in calling out bs. The only prima Donna we have is pogba and he is barely playing. Ronaldo is one but, he has carried us this season and seems like he is pushing his team to do better so you can't really complain much about his attitude affecting our performance.

Ralf reminds me of Bielsa. Many people says he has an amazing football mind, but when you look at his past, you can see why he is only being considered for a interim managerial position.

 

[ExoduS]

Carrick being interim to interim took "the bounce" effect from Rangnick so poor Rangnick truly has to start from zero or even negative as COVID situation is not helping at all.

 

[HailtotheKing]

He’s had four games. And even those were heavily obstructed by COVID. How about we give him a few more before deciding he’s crap. I have my own fears about whether this formation suits our players but I can at least see what he’s trying to do. It’s not his fault that so many players yesterday seemed unable to make a simple 5 yard pass. It’s like they all simultaneously developed crapitis. Hopefully that will have cleared up by the time we play Burnley.

 

[HailtotheKing]

Good post in calling out bs. The only prima Donna we have is pogba and he is barely playing. Ronaldo is one but, he has carried us this season and seems like he is pushing his team to do better so you can't really complain much about his attitude affecting our performance.

Ralf reminds me of Bielsa. Many people says he has an amazing football mind, but when you look at his past, you can see why he is only being considered for a interim managerial position.

I think people are right in calling out a bunch of overpaid “superstars” for their lazy work ethic and histrionics. They haven’t earned the right, Ronaldo excepted.
At the very least I expect them to match up to the pride and intensity of Norwich and Newcastle and then let their talent do the talking.

 

[devilish]

Erm, who are all these prima donnas we're carrying??? Maybe you see Rashford that way, ok. Ronaldo? If he is, he's putting a lot of balls in the auld onion bag, and has basically carried us to where we are in the Prem and CL. Bruno? Mayyyybe one could say so, but seems more like a frustrated captain-ish talent pissed off with his and our fall in form. But who else? Harry for all his faults this year is certainly not, nor anyone in our back line, especially not Varane nor Lindalof nor Shaw nor Bisaka nor Telles nor Dalot. Our midfield? You can't possibly consider Fred nor McTominay nor Matic. If you're referring to Pogba, he's hardly played for us. And no way Cavani nor Greenwood nor De Gea nor Sancho. Who else plays much for us who you would consider a prima donna?

Who are ALL these mythical "far too many" prima donnas United are carrying?? I keep hearing punters comment on this and I don't get it. It's not like we're full of these handwaving, class-oozing Berbatosses.

United had been branded lazy by almost everyone including Scholes, Keane, Rooney and Gaz but I guess everyone is wrong and you are right. There are other issues of course that which also include that some players are simply not good enough (McT, Maguire, Fred, AWB comes to mind). However let's not be kidding ourselves. There is a lack of commitment in our squad.

 

[croadyman]

I liked the fact he made changes at half time against Newcastle, however concerning we haven't seen any of that pressing style since first half against Palace

 

[mav_9me]

That’s what happens when you replace a manager the players hate. Suddenly they start trying again. The players didn’t hate Ole. They always tried for him (hence we had so many come from behind victories) So we were never going to get the easy bounce we saw after sacking Mourinho.

If anything, sacking a popular figure like Ole could destabilise us for a few weeks. We’ve also lost Carrick and McKenna in quick succession.

What the players need (and didn’t get under Ole) is world class coaching and a coherent, consistent approach to every game. This will obviously take much longer to produce any clear improvement than simply sacking a toxic presence like Mourinho.

Couldn't agree more with everything.

The only thing is, surprisingly if I may add, how bad we look. Perhaps my expectations were too high and I was wrong to have those, but I expected some obvious immediate impact in stabilizing things. Like the impact Flick, Tuchel etc had. Perhaps the group of players is just a bad mess which will require a lot of time and coaching. Or perhaps we are just going to be cursed like Liverpool were in the 90s

 

[Amadaeus]

I think people are right in calling out a bunch of overpaid “superstars” for their lazy work ethic and histrionics. They haven’t earned the right, Ronaldo excepted.
At the very least I expect them to match up to the pride and intensity of Norwich and Newcastle and then let their talent do the talking.

It is hard to get rid of bad habits that this team was plagued with under the last administration. In Ralph first game, we saw a lot of positive changes and then it seems our players have falling back into the bad habits of our last administration. I see a lot of passion and frustration in our players on the pitch, so I feel like there is more to it than the players having the wrong attitude. I believe the team is bloated and a dysfunctional unit that needs to be trimmed and rejuvenated with at least two players that is the right fit. Moreover, a manager that knows how to coach and has good man management capabilities.

I don't expect a quick fix but rather for Ralf to instill the right footballing mentality and then oversea that the next manager philosophy adhere to the right footballing principles that we want going forward. In the interview Ralph gives, we can definitely see a difference in the way he analyzes what went wrong. So, I am satisfied with the way we are going so far. I will be disappointed though, if we prolonged Ralf contract and overlook Pochettino or ten hag in the summer

 

[Bestietom]

That has nothing to do with it. I would hope United would hire top level coaches in the first place.

Why should the likes of Ronaldo, Cavani and Varane listen to people who know less about top level football then themselves?

Now your really talking nonsense.

 

[IhabX7]

His first real man management test is Burnley on Thursday. We’re very likely to win this match. The question is if he’s going to choose to do it with Ronaldo or without him. This will decide the narrative around the team for a long while. I know what I would do.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Yes. I rate him.

 

[UnitedSofa]

His first real man management test is Burnley on Thursday. We’re very likely to win this match. The question is if he’s going to choose to do it with Ronaldo or without him. This will decide the narrative around the team for a long while. I know what I would do.

Drop the man who has something ridiculous like 14 goals in 16 games? Makes sense.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

What is with the obsession of dropping Ronaldo? I agree that he needs rotated sensibly but he's not the problem and benching him won't solve our issues.

 

[Ayoba]

I would like to see us having more control in games. Right now we are simply incapable of keeping the ball for a sustained period of time. Ralf has clearly highlighted this early on as a problem but so far has failed to address it and let me tell you, playing 2 midfielders in the PL, especially those midfielders being Fred and Mctom will not solve that!

I think the Palace game, especially that 1st half, has somewhat clouded his judgement. Ever since then we've looked disjointed and a complete and utter mess. I kept saying it when Ole was in charge but we need to have 3 midfielders if we are to have any sort of control of possession, so a 4-3-3 formation is the way to go. The problem with that is what do you then do with Bruno, who arguably has been our most productive and important player the last 2 years. Then you have the question about Ronaldo, who whilst has been great in the CL, is actually quite poor in the PL and is very rarely involved off the ball, we need someone like Cavani. For the game against Burnley, I would like to see the following lineup:


---------------------------de gea------------------------
Dalot----------Varane------Maguire------Shaw
-----------------VDB-----Matic---Fred-----------
Sancho-------------Cavani--------------Rashford


If we want to add even more steel to the midfield, swap VDB for Mctominay. Once bruno is back, we could even switch to this formation and rely on width from the fullbacks:


---------------------------de gea------------------------
Dalot----------Varane------Maguire------Shaw
-----------------VDB-----Matic---Fred-----------
-------------Sancho----------------Bruno--------
-------------------------Cavani--------------------


Tl;dr: Stop playing with 2 strikers, swap one of them for a midfielder.

 

[ForeverRed1]

That doesn't sound too bad. We really need to get in to a goalscoring bit of form though.

yes and winning our next 3 games is a big ask

 

[ForeverRed1]

What is with the obsession of dropping Ronaldo? I agree that he needs rotated sensibly but he's not the problem and benching him won't solve our issues.

I love Ronaldo but can’t help but feel the attitude and whole vibe is different since he came. Hopefully I’m wrong

 

[VP89]

I'm thinking that Solskjaer's legacy is only going to strengthen over time. History will be kinder to him as time goes on. This United team is just not making any sense.

Rangnick's undoing will be sticking with players that don't deserve their playing time at the expense of form players.

He made this team, he fostered the shit attitude the players have with his relaxed approach to the squad. He didnt even coach them. If anything we are unravelling how much damage he did to the squad right now.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I feel like the squad is having a culture shock over the transition from Solskjaer to Rangnick.

Solskjaer was probably overly chummy with our squad and wanted to be everyone’s best mate (and if you were one of his favorites, you were untouchable), but didn’t command the respect to get his squad to go above and beyond… meanwhile Ralf and a whole new staff will be a taskmaster and get everyone working harder than they have been the past 3 years, judging by the lack of true coaching quality we’ve had, if McKenna and Carrick were the leads for coaching as Solskjaer and Phelan sat off in the distance watching.

Would love to be a fly on the wall in Ralf’s office now as he’s wondering what the hell has been going on and how this collection of talented players he’s inherited are so disjointed when they’re on the pitch together.

 

[VP89]

What is with the obsession of dropping Ronaldo? I agree that he needs rotated sensibly but he's not the problem and benching him won't solve our issues.

I don't see any issue if we drop Ronaldo. He's an icing on the cake player.

 

[roonster09]

His first real man management test is Burnley on Thursday. We’re very likely to win this match. The question is if he’s going to choose to do it with Ronaldo or without him. This will decide the narrative around the team for a long while. I know what I would do.

Drop Ronaldo for which player?

Ronaldo and Cavani might start as 9s. Sancho and Greenwood as 10.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

I love Ronaldo but can’t help but feel the attitude and whole vibe is different since he came. Hopefully I’m wrong

We had problems before Ronaldo arrived. It's likely that Ronaldo's arrival just exposed them. There were times last season when Bruno Fernandes was basically hinting in interviews that we weren't good enough and the players needed to step up and give more.

 

[90 + 5min]

No coaching, problem. More coaching, problem. None of these wanna win.

Spot on.

Managers need to stop this player nonsens. You can get in 10 best coaches in the world and we would still be asking, why doesn't it work. Because we have players with wrong character.

 

[ForeverRed1]

We had problems before Ronaldo arrived. It's likely that Ronaldo's arrival just exposed them. There were times last season when Bruno Fernandes was basically hinting in interviews that we weren't good enough and the players needed to step up and give more.

I agree with this, I just can’t get my head around how we have sancho, Rashford and Greenwood, all with outputs of 30 goals a season, looking terrified out there. Scared to shoot, scared to make mistakes. You imagine your 20 years old and you got Ronaldo tutting and screaming at you when you don’t pass to him or slightly over hit a pass.. you might love it or it might make you change your game slightly. When you get the ball your looking for him straight away, rather than doing what you do naturally. Your worried about messing up to the point where your rigid and lose your natural game.
Bruno’s numbers and attitude have dropped massively aswell, the players aren’t creative, the fluidity and flow is totally off. Maybe it’s got nothing to do with Ronaldo but the timing is 100% since he arrived.

he’s exceptional, had a exceptional career. The best player to grace the game (or one of) but I’m not sure he’s been great for the harmony. Juvnentus had the same thing and now are dealing with the after math and rebuild.

Real we’re lucky because the version of Ronaldo they had was so so good that everything running through him was perfectly ok. Everything running through him now may not have the same effect, as we are currently seeing.

he is our top scorer and bailed us out.. but if we didn’t have him, would our attackers all be performing better? Hard to say but it’s entirely possible.

 

[Noot]

What is with the obsession of dropping Ronaldo? I agree that he needs rotated sensibly but he's not the problem and benching him won't solve our issues.

From an outside perspective it looks like he's exactly the problem. I thought you were set up very well with Cavani and sometimes Greenwood playing up top at the start of the season/end of last. Now he's here you can't play that system anymore.

 

[Brophs]

I’m still not sure what in his CV made people assume he was going to come in and have us playing attractive, successful football immediately. He’s more of a DOF than a manager and, let’s be honest, there’s nothing to suggest he’s a top class manager at all. He may well be very useful in helping us shape the club for the future and can hopefully help with our recruitment issues but the situation is relatively similar to Ole’s time in that Liverpool, City, Chelsea and now Spurs all have considerably better managers than us. We’re in a fight for fourth place now and I suspect he and we will fall short.

 

[Foxbatt]

Drop Rashford and bring on either Cavani or Greenwood. But put DVB with Bruno if he is going to play 4222. It's the McFred zone the problem starts. It's the Bruno zone.
Telles and Dalot needs to cross early and around the penalty spot.

 

[IhabX7]

Drop the man who has something ridiculous like 14 goals in 16 games? Makes sense.

No, I wouldn’t drop him all season unless he requests to rest. He was nothing short of sensational up until the whole team went to shit.

 

[IhabX7]

Drop Ronaldo for which player?

Ronaldo and Cavani might start as 9s. Sancho and Greenwood as 10.

Ronaldo Cavani and Sancho should start. I’m hoping Ralf thinks the same and doesn’t do something stupid like dropping Ronaldo.

 

[sglowrider]

I am wondering when the '' is it bad of me that I hope we lose the next match so that we can get rid of Ole Rangnick?'' Or words to that effect.

 

[sglowrider]

Ronaldo Cavani and Sancho should start. I’m hoping Ralf thinks the same and doesn’t do something stupid like dropping Ronaldo.

Ronaldo needs dropping if we are to play Ralf to get his chance to implement his system. Ronaldo is now the archetypical Italian striker where they don't run much so that they can save their energy for when it counts -- in the penalty box. At 36 that's his only option.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Now your really talking nonsense.

Presumably you can back that up?

 

[RedStarUnited]

I just listened to his post match interview. At least he gets annoyed and see the same things we are seeing. With Ole I felt he never saw the issues the same way we did.

 

[dinostar77]

He needs time, he will eventually have us pressing like liverpool at their best under klopp. May not have all the personal he needs but he will get them sooner rather than later.

He will be in charge next season, I have no doubt. You dont start bringing in backroom staff who have families and such just for 5 months.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

From an outside perspective it looks like he's exactly the problem. I thought you were set up very well with Cavani and sometimes Greenwood playing up top at the start of the season/end of last. Now he's here you can't play that system anymore.

Then play Greenwood or Cavani with Ronaldo. He's the best finisher at the club, leaving a player of his quality who always steps up in the big moments would be a mistake. Rotate him sensibly yes but making him a super sub is not the answer. I hardly think he would be happy coming off the bench every week anyway so we would likely never see the best of him in that role.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Honestly if our young players are scared of Ronaldo then they will never reach the top level. Ronaldo got a lot of shit from Ruud when he was a young player and Ronaldo never backed down from him. He of course had the guidance of SAF and the coaches who helped him improve but he was always strong mentally and he believed in himself.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Ronaldo is this teams RVN of 06. The goals are still there, the movement too but by god he's a miserable sod.

 

[sunama]

That's funny, because from what I've seen, it's mainly the Ole-outers that are now complaining about RR

I was Ole out and I'm happy that RR is here and not complaining about him.
He needs to be given free rein to cut, change or replace players as he sees fit.

 

[Red4Ever]

People tqlking about deop


I've often wondered if likes of Bailly could do a job in MF? Not become a mf player as such long term. But simply as a sort of cover or something different until we sign someone.

Probably a daft thought but over the years many a player has adapted their game to become a different cog in a team.

When SAF took over I recall him using McGrath in mf. Think we lost the game.

Not saying it has to be Bailly specifically. Maybe AWB, lindelof...

Don't slate me on this I'm just not feeling mcfred and don't currently see alternatives amongst the youth right now.

Likes of Conte are renown for making players better/good in positions. I'm hoping Ralf has the same mindset.

Or just signs someone in the Jan window

paul mcgrath was a midfielder for both United and Ireland on many occasions
Particularly in big Ron era
That’s where he started I think

don’t see it with Bailly
Lindelof maybe though for United right now we’d be better off using ralfs knowledge to buy a ready made DM

 

[Berbasbullet]

Can you believe Ole's supporters, screaming after only 3 games?

How do you know it is just Ole supporters? Or are you just assuming and making this place more tribal than it already is?