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

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I said when he was appointed that when we lost a game the ‘Ralf out’ cry would go up. The match last night seemed like a loss and it’s started. FFS at least give the bloke three months before he is judged. All the ABU’s have crawled out of the woodwork questioning RR’s credentials. He has only just got a back room staff in that he wants and they have had no time to work with the squad. Even a Michelin starred chef can’t make a decent meal from shit ingredients and last night showed us who is up for it (not many) and who isn’t up to it (quite a few).

Every United manager gets apologised for by saying the players are all shit. It's a laughable excuse when you've got the likes of Ronaldo, Varane, Cavani and De Gea in your team. The manager needs to analyse the problems he's seen yesterday and work out how to solve them, in particular to get some morale, confidence and team spirit into them and stop them panicking and hoofing the ball every 3 seconds. If he can't do that then why did we sack our other interim manager to get him? It's the first job of the manager, never mind vertical pressing or whatever the feck everyone has been banging on about.
 
I have my doubts about the choice to get someone to come in and implement a totally new style of play when they’re only here 6 months. We really just need someone to put a rocket up the player’s arses.
 
What is it exactly about a massive, pale 6'4 Scotsman and a tiny midget, black Brazilian that is so confusing that so many fans seem to think they're the same player? Fred was utterly appalling and deservedly got hooked. McTominay was very good. Him and Cavani were the best outfield players by a distance.

Cavani seems to perform well regardless of the situation or formation. Truly the makings of a top class player. We don't have enough of them for too many promising talents that aren't living up to their hype.
 
Every United manager gets apologised for by saying the players are all shit. It's a laughable excuse when you've got the likes of Ronaldo, Varane, Cavani and De Gea in your team. The manager needs to analyse the problems he's seen yesterday and work out how to solve them, in particular to get some morale, confidence and team spirit into them and stop them panicking and hoofing the ball every 3 seconds. If he can't do that then why did we sack our other interim manager to get him? It's the first job of the manager, never mind vertical pressing or whatever the feck everyone has been banging on about.

How can you read that post and completely ignore the main point of it, which is pointing out the utter lunacy of slagging him off when he’s had so little time to work with the team.
 
Couldn't give a fiddlers fart.

I'm more a fan of giving young lads a try who want to play for the club and will put in the required work rate.

I'd happily drop Rashford for Elanga and give Diallo a bench spot here n there to keep Rashford in line and performing.

Harry has been a disaster this season, our CB pairing should be Vic and Varane.
No, but the owners will.
 
Shaw and AWB have been awful. You cant just ignore that and blindly play them no matter what.
They’ve also been out of the team for many many weeks now.

Time to give them a chance to step up and gain some form. We can’t drop them forever.
 
Er, are you sure you are a United fan? Playing like Barca in a month? BTW it took Klopp a couple of years not two training sessions. I can only assume you had a good Christmas.
Just joking, mate. It's hard to convey sarcasm in a post!

Ralf needs time to implement his ideas and it will take some time as there is a lot of work to do. People need to realise this and just be patient.
 
Every United manager gets apologised for by saying the players are all shit. It's a laughable excuse when you've got the likes of Ronaldo, Varane, Cavani and De Gea in your team. The manager needs to analyse the problems he's seen yesterday and work out how to solve them, in particular to get some morale, confidence and team spirit into them and stop them panicking and hoofing the ball every 3 seconds. If he can't do that then why did we sack our other interim manager to get him? It's the first job of the manager, never mind vertical pressing or whatever the feck everyone has been banging on about.
It would be naive to believe a man as experienced as Rangnick hasn't already identified the issues. But seeing an issue and fixing it are two very different things.

LVG was no fool, and for that matter neither was Jose. They could see plrmty of issues with not only our players but with our club as a whole, and they weren't able to fix everything despite achieving numerous successes in their careers.

There's a lot wrong at United, things that have manifested over many years. Some things will be easier to fix than others, but it sure as hell isn't going to happen in a month, or even this season. Getting this club back on track is a long process and we'll need to stick with the direction we choose, rather than wanting to rip it up and change every time we play shit.
 
Just joking, mate. It's hard to convey sarcasm in a post!

Ralf needs time to implement his ideas and it will take some time as there is a lot of work to do. People need to realise this and just be patient.


It seems strange though I mean he was always going to try and change our playing style drastically and make us a pressing team which was going to take time.

Yet we bought him in for six months, is that really enough time for him to achieve anything?
 
High press with overpaid primadonnas will never work. We need to change most of the team and wage structure if we want achieve such tactics
 
It’s been a few weeks and what, 3-4 matches? Give it some more time.
He doesn't have time on his side. He has to deliver pretty quickly like Tuchel did. Obviously we wont do much in the CL but top 4 is a minimum.
 
What we're seeing here is the start of a process that will lead United fans to a realisation that they aren't ready to accept - that being that Ole wasn't necessarily the biggest problem at this club.

Read the transcript of Ralfs recent interviews and they are highlighting the same issues as before. Lack of passion. Lack of effort. Players losing personal battles. Players making basic mistakes all the time. The difference is who is delivering the message and how it is being delivered. One of Oles biggest faults was that he was not a naturally charismatic speaker. Ralf has that, and combined with a better pedigree it gives his comments more weight, but ultimately the message is the same.

Its a deep rooted issue within our squad, one that is highlighted not just from watching opponents outworking us every match, but also from seeing the impact that our most important player, Cavani, has on our performances whenever he is on the field.

We can tweak our tactics to shore up the middle, and then re-tweak them again when we realise that exposes our flanks, and again and again until these players finally realise that it's not the system, or the manager, or anything else that causes us to struggle. It's their own lack of focus and workrate.

Let's hope that Ralf can unlock the secret before its too late. Its not going to happen overnight, that's for sure.
Agreed with the overall point - he will need time to get his ideas across but disagree on the Ole bit. He wasn’t the biggest issue but he had what, 3+ years and a lot of investment to address the squad issues/commitment. So if that still persists now, surely you can’t absolve him of that?

But yeah, something is rotten and it’s started since SAF left. Let’s hope the new structure we have implemented, and are implementing with RR, changes the culture around the club/squad because all post SAF appointments have failed in doing so.

Anyway, I don’t want to derail this thread.
 
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It seems strange though I mean he was always going to try and change our playing style drastically and make us a pressing team which was going to take time.

Yet we bought him in for six months, is that really enough time for him to achieve anything?
He will be with us as a consultant for two years following his stint as interim manager. He will also have a say in respect of the next manager who will most probably continue his work.

In the circumstances, 6 months should be enough though Ralf said himself that a year would probably be better!

Notwithstanding the above, we need to give him time to implement his ideas and we should be patient.
 
It’s been 4 matches with 16 days where most of our players couldn’t train / had covid between the last two matches. Give it a little bit of time.
 
So many basic errors from the players. That can't be laid at Ragnicks door.

It was going to take some time to bed in some of his ideas. Those sounds were already being made even before his 1st game.
 
What we're seeing here is the start of a process that will lead United fans to a realisation that they aren't ready to accept - that being that Ole wasn't necessarily the biggest problem at this club.

Read the transcript of Ralfs recent interviews and they are highlighting the same issues as before. Lack of passion. Lack of effort. Players losing personal battles. Players making basic mistakes all the time. The difference is who is delivering the message and how it is being delivered. One of Oles biggest faults was that he was not a naturally charismatic speaker. Ralf has that, and combined with a better pedigree it gives his comments more weight, but ultimately the message is the same.

Its a deep rooted issue within our squad, one that is highlighted not just from watching opponents outworking us every match, but also from seeing the impact that our most important player, Cavani, has on our performances whenever he is on the field.

We can tweak our tactics to shore up the middle, and then re-tweak them again when we realise that exposes our flanks, and again and again until these players finally realise that it's not the system, or the manager, or anything else that causes us to struggle. It's their own lack of focus and workrate.

Let's hope that Ralf can unlock the secret before its too late. Its not going to happen overnight, that's for sure.
Very good post. Completely agree. As long as we get outfought against the smaller teams, we will always have problems.

It seems strange though I mean he was always going to try and change our playing style drastically and make us a pressing team which was going to take time.

Yet we bought him in for six months, is that really enough time for him to achieve anything?
I think, he was also brought in to have almost a full season to evaluate the squad. You are right, 8 months aren't enough to implement an organised pressing system and at the end of the day, he inherited a squad with quite a few challenges, that didn't just go away because we changed the manager.

In my opinion, we look different. We looked different even in the first half last night. We played way faster, more direct and one touch. We made a lot of mistakes though, received a goal after 7 minutes and weren't forcing enough to equalize soon after. That gave Newcastle a lot of hope and that even strengthens their fight (kudos to them). Don't think, the 4-2-2-2 is an issue per se. But these more central systems rely even more on the fullbacks to provide width. And they were very very anonymus yesterday. And thats even ignoring their anyway limitations...
 
I love Ole. But it's funny how some are quick with their "I told you it wasn't Ole!". Well obviously not only on Ole but also his coaches and then the players. But that "team" consisting of Ole, the coaches and the players were the ones that led us to this situation. Give it some time. Ralf is also an intertim manager which means we don't exactly plan him to be the long term manager anyway. He needs to sort out the performances first and foremost, at least the basics. Don't dream about winning CL, 100% win streak in the league playing proactive football or something silly like that.
 
If he was our next full time appointment then I would have had some questions. However, he's an interim who is here to keep things steady for the next 6 months, and oversee the move to the next permanent head coach. It's more of a transformational period for the club as a whole, rather than a period that we judge purely on the results and performances.

That being said, from the untrained eye of a non football person it does look like there we are persisting with a couple things that aren't working. The 4-2-2-2 for one of them. McFred for the other. Yes, Fred scored a couple goals but in a game where you need a bit of quality from CM when the forward line aren't firing, they often come up short.
 
That's alot of money sitting on the bench twiddling their thumbs.
Money do
High press with overpaid primadonnas will never work. We need to change most of the team and wage structure if we want achieve such tactics
I said the same thing earlier. Fergie gave the prima donnas the boot from a winning team to bring in an evolution of kids with fire and hunger in their bellies who were in his own image. RR needs to do this. Bring in a couple in Jan and promote a couple from the reserves and bench some of the high earners. This might make them think twice. At the moment you have Rashford McFred and Maguire who are woeful, yet know they dont need to improve as they will play anyway. Greenwood, VDB a couple of reserves and 2 young raring to go CM bought in January would transform this team.
 
They’ve also been out of the team for many many weeks now.

Time to give them a chance to step up and gain some form. We can’t drop them forever.

Anyone can be dropped forever. When a player realises he won't be dropped for more than a few weeks, then the whole point of dropping them in the first place is lost. They haven't lost their place, they've just been given an extended holiday.
 
What we're seeing here is the start of a process that will lead United fans to a realisation that they aren't ready to accept - that being that Ole wasn't necessarily the biggest problem at this club.

Read the transcript of Ralfs recent interviews and they are highlighting the same issues as before. Lack of passion. Lack of effort. Players losing personal battles. Players making basic mistakes all the time. The difference is who is delivering the message and how it is being delivered. One of Oles biggest faults was that he was not a naturally charismatic speaker. Ralf has that, and combined with a better pedigree it gives his comments more weight, but ultimately the message is the same.

Its a deep rooted issue within our squad, one that is highlighted not just from watching opponents outworking us every match, but also from seeing the impact that our most important player, Cavani, has on our performances whenever he is on the field.

We can tweak our tactics to shore up the middle, and then re-tweak them again when we realise that exposes our flanks, and again and again until these players finally realise that it's not the system, or the manager, or anything else that causes us to struggle. It's their own lack of focus and workrate.

Let's hope that Ralf can unlock the secret before its too late. Its not going to happen overnight, that's for sure.

Surely you’d accept that building a squad full of players that have the necessary focus and workrate is one of the most important parts of any manager’s job description?

And we’ve seen plenty of examples in the past of managers building those qualities in a dysfunctional squad without selling and replacing every one of them.

I agree there’s no short term fix though. Certainly not in the frankly paltry time Rangnick has had with the players thus far.
 
Anyone can be dropped forever. When a player realises he won't be dropped for more than a few weeks, then the whole point of dropping them in the first place is lost. They haven't lost their place, they've just been given an extended holiday.
To do that the players on the pitch would need to be performing, except their not.

So to drop players indefinitely is to guarantee a spot to others.

It’s about rotation and competition for places, not about dropping people as a form of punishment. We are playing about as bad and toothless as I’ve seen with the current bunch.
 
They’ve also been out of the team for many many weeks now.

Time to give them a chance to step up and gain some form. We can’t drop them forever.
Telles and Dalot sat on the bench for far longer and Im sure you weren't saying that for them.

We've won 3 in a row in the league and then drew last night, 2 clean sheets in there and a win over Arsenal. A draw with Chelsea before that where Telles played. There is no need to be dropping them so soon because of a draw at Newcastle given the results Shaw and AWB were part of.
 
Telles and Dalot sat on the bench for far longer and Im sure you weren't saying that for them.

We've won 3 in a row in the league and then drew last night, 2 clean sheets in there and a win over Arsenal. A draw with Chelsea before that where Telles played. There is no need to be dropping them so soon because of a draw at Newcastle given the results Shaw and AWB were part of.
I wasn’t, because they are crap. Is the short answer.
 
To do that the players on the pitch would need to be performing, except their not.

So to drop players indefinitely is to guarantee a spot to others.

It’s about rotation and competition for places, not about dropping people as a form of punishment. We are playing about as bad and toothless as I’ve seen with the current bunch.

Sure but Shaw/AWB have been given about 13/14 games, whilst Dalot/Telles have been given 3. It's been shite all the way.

We are not treating everyone fairly here.
 
Telles and Dalot sat on the bench for far longer and Im sure you weren't saying that for them.

We've won 3 in a row in the league and then drew last night, 2 clean sheets in there and a win over Arsenal. A draw with Chelsea before that where Telles played. There is no need to be dropping them so soon because of a draw at Newcastle given the results Shaw and AWB were part of.
Dalot is absolute trash and offers feck all to our team. He's slow, he can't cross the road let alone a fecking ball and constantly fecks up forward passes.

If AWB made the serial errors that Dalot makes, the hate toward him would be far greater.
 
I wasn’t, because they are crap. Is the short answer.
Which reveals the real reason you're suggesting we bring back Shaw and AWB despite results improving. You don''t actually believe in rotating players and playing those in form, you're just full of shit.
 
Dalot is absolute trash and offers feck all to our team. He's slow, he can't cross the road let alone a fecking ball and constantly fecks up forward passes.

If AWB made the serial errors that Dalot makes, the hate toward him would be far greater.

AWB is trash and offers absolute feck all to the team, makes lots of errors and is also non-existent past the halfway line. The only difference between him and Dalot is the price we paid.
 
AWB is trash and offers absolute feck all to the team, makes lots of errors and is also non-existent past the halfway line. The only difference between him and Dalot is the price we paid.
Dalot fecks up simple passes and has Bebe esque crossing. He's not as defensively sound as AWB either. AWB is actually superior in every manner bar height.

I'm not praising AWB to be a great quality fullback here, but he's no way near as bad as Dalot. Dalot almost always offers feck all to us as an attacking threat and gets a dick on his face every so often against pacey wingers (that Villareal memory will never be wiped).
 
Dalot fecks up simple passes and has Bebe esque crossing. He's not as defensively sound as AWB either. AWB is actually superior in every manner bar height.

I'm not praising AWB to be a great quality fullback here, but he's no way near as bad as Dalot. Dalot almost always offers feck all to us as an attacking threat and gets a dick on his face every so often against pacey wingers (that Villareal memory will never be wiped).

AWB also fecks up simple passes and he dreams of reaching Bebe's level in crossing.

He used to be a alright defender but this year, nope. He's got terrible positioning and his tackling has dropped a level.
 
What we're seeing here is the start of a process that will lead United fans to a realisation that they aren't ready to accept - that being that Ole wasn't necessarily the biggest problem at this club.

Read the transcript of Ralfs recent interviews and they are highlighting the same issues as before. Lack of passion. Lack of effort. Players losing personal battles. Players making basic mistakes all the time. The difference is who is delivering the message and how it is being delivered. One of Oles biggest faults was that he was not a naturally charismatic speaker. Ralf has that, and combined with a better pedigree it gives his comments more weight, but ultimately the message is the same.

Its a deep rooted issue within our squad, one that is highlighted not just from watching opponents outworking us every match, but also from seeing the impact that our most important player, Cavani, has on our performances whenever he is on the field.

We can tweak our tactics to shore up the middle, and then re-tweak them again when we realise that exposes our flanks, and again and again until these players finally realise that it's not the system, or the manager, or anything else that causes us to struggle. It's their own lack of focus and workrate.

Let's hope that Ralf can unlock the secret before its too late. Its not going to happen overnight, that's for sure.
The simple flip side to this will be seen a couple of months I guess. There’s clearly a lot of new information the players are trying to digest and, let’s be honest, it’s not necessarily a positive to have a long period off when there’s only been a few training sessions and some of our coaches only just arrived. If we play in that manner for example against Burnley at OT (just over a month from now) I think your point will make sense but I suspect/hope we won’t and it simply is way to early to say what you are saying for certain.

One factor our fans need to remember because I’ve seen people referencing Tuchel coming in and making an impact quickly is that some of the Chelsea squad had played 3 at the back under an absolute master of that system in Conte. RR isn’t following on from a coach who implemented a high press and played a similar way, Ole wanted to do that but had no idea how to, RR is essentially starting from scratch. Then add in he’s never really been a specialist head coach, his strengths are as a DoF…That said, we should expect to see a new style of playing and by the end of the season the basics should be there ready for the new head coach. My realistic hope is we can make top 4 and basically have a solid press in place, to the point we’re very difficult to play against, keep possession (even if we don’t win) against all but the top few teams and feel a real accountability from our players again.
 
AWB is not good on the ball but be really is no worse in that regard than Dalot and he’s certainly a better defender.

Shaw has had a poor season but he is also lightyears ahead of Telles as a footballer.

Dalot and Telles are terrible and if Rangnick continues picking them as first choice, he’s absolutely clueless.
 
AWB is not good on the ball but be really is no worse in that regard than Dalot and he’s certainly a better defender.

Shaw has had a poor season but he is also lightyears ahead of Telles as a footballer.

Dalot and Telles are terrible and if Rangnick continues picking them as first choice, he’s absolutely clueless.

I rate AWB and Dalot fairly equally i.e. pretty fecking useless but I agree that Shaw is better than Telles.

That said, Rangnick can't just give Shaw an extended holiday with the expectation that he will come back in a few weeks, no problem.

His mentality will not improve, his hunger will not improve.
 
AWB is not good on the ball but be really is no worse in that regard than Dalot and he’s certainly a better defender.

Shaw has had a poor season but he is also lightyears ahead of Telles as a footballer.

Dalot and Telles are terrible and if Rangnick continues picking them as first choice, he’s absolutely clueless.
AWB is extremely worse in that aspect. The sudden switch and crossing to the forwards isn't his trait at all.

It's funny because people gave AWB 3 fecking years yet you can't give Dalot 6 months. This is his 3rd start ffs. Just have some patience.
 
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