Why Austria of all places?
A typical move by visionary Ralf Rangnick
By Tobias Nordmann & Stephan Uersfeld
05/01/2022, 07:20 am
The Austrian national team has a new hope: Ralf Rangnick, the football visionary. He comes from Manchester United. What might sound like a step backwards for the coach is exactly the opposite. There in Austria, Rangnick can do what he does best.
From Manchester to Vienna. For people who like good coffee, a charming language or just grandezza, a call from the Austrian capital should be tempting. Especially when the reputation echoes in a city considered very “ugly” due to its industrial heritage. So as “ugly”. Ralf Rangnick achieved this reputation. But his reasons for leaving this world metropolis of football lie far removed from the temptations of the Austrian city, which is considered to be particularly unfriendly but worth living in. The fact that the football visionary is now taking over the national team of the Alpine Republic is a typical move from Backnanger. Because he reflects on what he can do best.
Rangnick is from Manchester. There he had dared to get the tumbling United giants back on their feet. It was a temporary plan. At least officially. It is unclear whether the trainer could have imagined more if his mission had gone perfectly. But not utopian. Because Rangnick had the ambition to train a top club again in the autumn of his career in order to play for the title. He failed at that. Lured to England with great expectations, praised as the inventor of counter-pressing, his yield is pathetic. Manchester United are facing their worst season in a long, long time. That’s not just Rangnick’s fault, of course.
“Rangnick is a disaster”
Three wins in their last three games would take Manchester United to 64 points. This mark represents the Red Devils’ worst point tally in the Premier League era. Achieved under David Moyes in the 2013/2014 season. Rangnick’s name could thus remain associated with a low point in the club’s history in Manchester. “He was very good at letting criticism of his performances bounce off him. He criticized the players, the mentality, the club’s transfer policy. He only distracted from his own mistakes,” said ESPN expert Mark Ogden: ” The reality is this: he hasn’t won any of his last seven games. His predecessor was fired after two wins in his last seven games. Rangnick is a disaster. The players don’t respect him.”
Rangnick failed at the task of Manchester United. In doing so, he wanted to face another challenge than that of development. He was in this department for a long time. And that very successfully. The 63-year-old has earned a reputation as a visionary with his work at TSG Hoffenheim and especially with the teams from the Red Bull empire, two clubs that built something under clinical conditions in professional football. So very different from the aground tanker Manchester United, with all the history that downright crushes the club. He was usually successful when he was given all the freedom he needed. If he wasn’t annoyed by stars and their egos, but could shape them.
Rangnick is considered the inventor of the radical idea that the energy drink clubs in particular have adopted. He is considered a specialist in pressing and switching games. But Rangnick was always ahead of his time, thought progressively. His appearance in the ZDF sports studio is legendary. As coach of the then second division team SSV Ulm 1846, he explained modern football to the world on a small tactics board. Via keynote speech. He spoke about the new phenomenon of the back four. He explained coverage and what is now understood as pressing. It was about ball-oriented defending. To overpower situations in the immediate vicinity of the ball. All things that had played no role in football at the time.
Visionary fails because of history
All things that Rangnick used to coach the promoted team to the autumn championship. His thinking was based on legendary luminaries such as Valerij Lobanowski or Arrigo Sacchi. Rangnick’s goal has always been: He wanted to take clubs further. you develop. But according to his ideas. The fact that he was often offended by his employers with these was a consequence of his progressiveness. But also his conviction, which was very manifest. He’s just a visionary, not a diplomat.
This is said to be one of the problems of his time at United, which is scheduled to expire this summer. The coach from Germany wanted to push through his idea of football again. Our tactics expert Constantin Eckner judged in an analysis: “Rangnick acted ambitiously in the first few weeks and wanted to give United his pressing medicine. But there were neither automatisms nor did United’s attackers bring the necessary intensity into the game. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo seemed like a foreign body. “
Rangnick may have underestimated the fact that Ronaldo is no longer suitable for this interpretation of the game. In the Portuguese national team, for example, the 37-year-old is also primarily active as a trotter, who only shows his explosiveness in selected moments of the game, as Eckner analyses. But unlike in previous positions, Rangnick adapted, was not asked here as a developer, but as a man who had to look after a troupe of stars who were apparently less willing to perform because they were willing to leave. Rangnick overcame himself for this task, did not stick to his convictions, but varied. Without much success. Since Rangnick was only brought in as an interim solution anyway, the German was probably a “lame duck” right from the start, who lacked the necessary authority in the dressing room.
Austria as an opportunity
So now Austria. The tormented football country that missed the World Cup in Qatar. Lost to Wales in the playoffs. That was the end of it for Franco Foda. For the coach who was constantly criticized. Because in Austria they were of the opinion that the potential of the squad, which is considered to be quite large (at least sufficient for World Cup participation), could never be exhausted.
Austria is now on the ground in terms of football. It needs a rebuild. a vision. A long-term plan. And the association has proclaimed Rangnick for that. He finds the conditions there that he particularly likes. Potential (with a lot of young talent from the RB forges) and little outside interference. At and for Rangnick it is always about as much independent competence as possible. He can nominate the squad as he likes. He can design the training, implement an idea, according to his ideas.
One of them is that he will stay with Manchester United as an advisor. The club confirms that it intends to stick to it. Despite Rangnick’s involvement in Austria. Is that an idea that will work for both parties? Especially at a club like the Red Devils, so desperate for an identity that will erase the obsession with Alex Fergueson’s past?
The first doubts about this are already being raised. Manchester United legend Gary Neville sees a conflict of interest and Rangnick unable to fill both posts. “Where is his priority?” asked today’s TV expert in his podcast, referring to the duties of a national coach: watching games, watching players, planning the national team squad and then looking after it. “I don’t see how this is supposed to work.”