Raees
Pythagoras in Boots
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- May 16, 2009
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Put together a pretty long report on what we can expect to get from Rangnick, some snippets below if anyone is interested.
Link: https://pythagorasinboots.com/ralf-rangnick-tactical-analysis/
Link: https://pythagorasinboots.com/ralf-rangnick-tactical-analysis/
A CHANCE ENCOUNTER CHANGES EVERYTHING
Whilst Rangnick had shown an aptitude for how to 'run' a football club, he was still trying to figure out 'how' he wanted his team play. A key moment in his tactical development would be the moment he first crossed paths with Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the Ukranian managerial wizard and tactical visionary who could be described as football's first scientist and a preeminent architect of the modern press.
In 1983, Lobanovskyi's Dynamo Kiev side were staying in a nearby training centre and needed easy opposition for a friendly. The selected victims? FC Viktoria Backnang. What ensued would leave an everlasting impression on young Rangnick and shape the German's own thoughts on how the game should be played.
Prior to this encounter, Rangnick's side had been beaten by established opposition before but this was different. A few minutes in, when the ball had gone out for a throw-in, Rangnick in sheer disbelief, stopped and counted their players. Something was wrong. Did they have 13 or 14 men on the pitch? There seemed to be simply no moment of breathing space for his players... Kiev were the first team Rangnick had ever come up against who systematically pressed the ball.
After the game, Rangnick was able to talk to Lobanovskyi through an interpreter and asked him if he could regularly observe their training sessions at a local sports school. The lessons he learned from Lobanovskyi would prove to be invaluable. During the period of 1983-1985, Rangnick managed the club's rise from the Bezirksliga to the Verbandsliga. He also used this period to obtain his football coaching license at the Cologne Sports University in 1984, as the best student of the year with a 1.2 grade point average.
GROß-RANGNICK FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY (PROTOTYPE)
Back 4 and Zonal Marking
After consuming a heady cocktail of Happel, Lobanovskyi and Sacchi, the Groß-Rangnick template for the perfect football philosophy began to take shape. The first cornerstone was ball-oriented zonal marking with a back four in line and the ball as a main reference for the defence. Man-marking and the sweeper role was expelled, concepts which at the time considered sacrosanct in German football circles.
Pressing Traps To Proactively Win The Ball
The second cornerstone involved hunting for the ball aggressively and wildly rushing towards the ball-carrier aiming to reduce time and space... inducing panic and forcing the opponent to make mistakes and steal the ball higher up the pitch and closer to the goal. The faster you could win the ball, the greater the momentum you could take into the ensuing attack and the greater likelihood of the opposition being disoriented with lesser time to react.
To avoid mindless wasted waves of pressing, clever positioning would be utilised to force the opponent to play short or long miss passes. This would take the form of luring the opponent into little tricky spaces and then deploying the pressing waves to force turnovers - the famous 'pressing traps'.
Verticality In Possession
In possession the primary idea was verticality, fluid attacking movement and efficient combination plays, aiming to attack with pace and break the opponent's shape with less number of passes. The idea was that more passes risked a loss of possession. Furthermore too much ball retention would take the tempo out of the game and reduce the possibilities to exploit the opposition in transitional/counter pressing situations.
RANGNICK AT RED BULL
Rangnick Takes Over (2018/2019)
Prior to the start of the 2018/19 season Rangnick sold Keita to Liverpool after receiving a series of lucrative offers. He brought in a young Emile Smith-Rowe on loan and Kevin Kampl became a more important player tactically. Certain elements of what Hasenhuttle had brought in during his reign were kept i.e. the slightly more conservative press but there was a calculated reduction in terms of how much Leipzig held of the ball.
Possession went from 55% down to 50%. Yet Leipzig scored more and conceded less, 63 goals scored and only 29 conceded - their best defensive performance since Rangnick came to the club in any capacity. It was a validation of his philosophy that more possession could lead to inefficiencies in terms of outcomes. Formations wise, Rangnick was more versatile than Hasenhuttle and drifted from the 4222 to go diamond or even 3-5-2. Overall they had more counter attacks (4.85 per game) and even more positional shots with attack. A team that looked to make the most of any time it had the ball.
Hands Over To Nagelsmann (2019/2020)
Rangnick ultimately guided RB Leipzig to a third-place finish, which qualified them for the Champions League, and they reached the final of the DFB Cup, losing to FC Bayern München. He then moved back upstairs and handed the reigns to Julian Nagelsmann.
Nagelsmann made the team even faster, with an 18.57 pass tempo, but he also made the team more possession orientated - giving the team more guile than Rangnick's sledgehammer approach. This elevated their average XG to 2.11 per game. Key players brought in during his tenure included Nkunku from PSG and Angelino from Man City.
In what would prove to be Rangnick's final season as a sporting director for RB Leipzig, Nagelsmann would lead the team to the semi finals of the Champions League, and remain 3rd in the Bundesliga. The following season they would finish second both in the league and the cup. In a sense, Rangnick had succeeded in helping to construct a club that was now a stable force at the very top of German football but the lack of trophies also perpetuates the notion that he was more of a philosopher rather than a winner at the elite end of the spectrum.
Verdict: For the first time, Rangnick was able to sustain a club as a title competing force and make waves in Europe. Nagelsmann did make a huge impact in making the side more nuanced but he showed here that he can evolve and still learn.
WHAT WILL HE BRING TO MANCHESTER UNITED
Professionalism and Humility
Inspired by the likes of Lobanovskyi and Sacchi, it is no wonder that Rangnick prioritises systems and the collective over the individuals. He does so with utmost zeal and he will not cower in the face of any player to achieve that aim. You can bet your bottom dollar that if he is backed appropriately - if the likes of Ronaldo and Bruno dare to throw strops or interfere with the implementation of his regime, they will be sold without a moments hesitation. There is also no chance of Pogba being indulged like he was under Ole despite blatantly disrespecting the club.
There will also be a cultural reset behind the scenes. Rangnick is a genuine 'football scientist' and he will demand that United have the best in class when it comes to nutritionists, video analysts and data analytics. The issue is that United are competing against teams who already have this in place and what was once considered revolutionary is the norm now in the Premier League. Nevertheless, the fact that United will no longer be left behind in this respect can only be a positive.
If Rangnick can make United a 'University of Football' rather than an adult Disneyland, they will be able to attract managers of great talent and ambition once again. They will attract serious young players who want to advance their game, not their pockets and there will be a move away from signing geriatrics and past their best Galacticos. There will be a return to the signing of 'Gems' and developing these players, which was a tradition under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Dynamism And Tempo
One thing Rangnick shares with Sir Alex Ferguson is a love of high tempo football. He wants his side to finish the counter-attack within under ten seconds since this is the time window with the bigger probability of scoring. In order to practice transition play, he even uses a clock with a count-down and the players can hear the ticking. That way, the ten-second rule for a shot on target is supposed to “become an instinct” according to Rangnick.
"After regaining possession, they must immediately look for their most offensive player available. The wingers must quickly support the receiving player with deep runs. However, they only provide the maximum width needed as this shortens the way towards the goal. Sometimes, teams park two buses in front of their box and force us to have lots of possession, which makes it more difficult to pick up pace and create clear goalscoring opportunities. If you have too much possession, your game resembles handball and you don’t get anywhere."
This is actually a good match up for the Old Trafford crowd who often get impatient and zone out when the team goes into 'zombie passing' mode with listless periods of possession. Under Rangnick there will be genuine purpose on the ball.
The media has speculated about who will be winners or losers under Rangnick's regime and it has revealed a lack of knowledge of what Rangnick actually stands for. Players like Bruno and Rashford, are in theory, Rangnick style players due to their direct threat and the speed at which they play the game. Off the ball, they need to put in a greater effort and their ego's need to be cut down to size but if they can do that, they could blossom under his tutelage.
