What tactics to expect from Ralf Rangnick at Man United
@FBL_Thinker looks into Ralf Rangnick’s past to find his favourite system and whether this was duplicated for Manchester United’s 1-0 weekend win over Crystal Palace.
Ralf Rangnick’s appointment as Man United interim manager for the remainder of the campaign came as a surprise to many, as the man called the “Professor” has often remained out of the limelight of big clubs and has performed miracles at smaller clubs like Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, bringing them up from the lower leagues to be a prominent face in the Bundesliga
HISTORY
Rangnick’s playing career was short-lived and was primarily concentrated in Germany but included a stint at English club Southwick. He began his coaching career at VfB Stuttgart II and then moved on to other lower league German clubs. His first major role came in 1999 when named coach of VfB Stuttgart, managing an eighth-placed Bundesliga finish. He then went on to coach Hannover 96 and Schalke 04.
Rangnick first came into prominence at Hoffenheim where he got the club promoted to the Bundesliga and was one of the top teams in the first half of the season. He then led Schalke to the Champions League semi-final after defeating the likes of Inter Milan. A believer in the underdog, he then took charge at Leipzig and challenged the might of Bayern Munich by finishing third in the league, qualifying for the Champions League and making the final of the German Cup. After that, he moved to the management side, with his latest stint as Head of Sports and Development at Lokomotiv Moscow.
TACTICS
Rangnick is synonymous with ‘gegenpressing’ which is German for ‘counter pressing’. It is a tactical philosophy that has been popularised by many teams like Rangnick’s Hoffenheim and Leipzig, plus Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool teams.
What is the essence of gegenpressing? It requires the forward line to commit to running, as they are instructed to rapidly close down opposition defenders to force an error when attempting to play the ball out from the back.
When out of possession, Rangnick’s teams look to press the opposition rather early to win the ball high up the pitch. This will then enable them to quickly transition into attack and exploit the opposition’s subsequent disorganisation close to the goal. Rangnick stresses upon the numerical advantage of having at least one player press the opponent ball carrier. One of Rangnick’s quotes during his stint at Leipzig:
“If you want to increase the speed of your game, you have to develop quicker minds rather than quicker feet. At RB, we work on increasing the memory space and the processing pace.“
His sides usually play with a striking duo. Wingers tuck inside and sometimes even act as playmakers behind the duo. With this, the double-pivot is not necessarily supposed to stay in central areas as there will always be enough options provided. Instead, they can move wider and allow the full-backs to push higher up the pitch.
Analysing his Leipzig tactics, we see that he mostly deployed the 4-2-2-2 formation with main target man Yussuf Poulsen up top and pacy Timo Werner making runs alongside him.
He deployed Emil Forsberg on the left and Sabitzer on the right but narrowly, allowing the full-backs to push forward as shown below:
UNITED FORMATION UNDER RANGNICK
After mostly lining up in a 4-2-3-1 shape under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Michael Carrick, Manchester United was organised by Rangnick into a 4-2-2-2 formation against Crystal Palace. Attacking width was provided by full-backs, while the double-pivot supported and provided cover behind Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho – who operated as number tens initially looking to attack through the inside channels.
The front two of Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford (playing as an out-of-position midfielder) attacked the spaces between full-back and central defender, or looked to withdraw to link play into Fernandes and Sancho. United first progressed possession around Crystal Palace’s 4-4-2 defensive block and through the wide areas, before working it back inside once they had advanced beyond Palace’s wide midfielders. Alex Telles and Diogo Dalot stretched the play wide and sent crosses in, with Fernandes and Sancho making late runs into the box and Fred the defensive midfielder often moving to the left side to link-up with Telles and cover the space once the full-back advanced forward.
Most United attacks came from the left for three major reasons:
- The crossing ability of Telles and his advanced movement upfield
- They seemed to pinpoint Nathaniel Clyne, identifying him as the Palace player least comfortable on the ball and therefore a prime gegenpress target
- Rangnick’s tactic to control the attacking threat of Wilfried Zaha down the right, so Dalot was forward less to cover the defence
ASSETS TO WATCH
Marcus Rashford – £9.4m midfielder
Playing as a forward alongside Ronaldo, Rashford was making runs into the box and looked like a threat. However, he did not have a shot on target and was taken off after 76 minutes, A keen eye needs to be kept on him, to see how he adapts to the role and he could be a good fantasy asset.
Bruno Fernandes – £11.6m midfielder
The Portuguese playmaker started as a number ten and was mostly drifting to the left and linking up with full-back Telles, whilst providing crosses trying to pick out Ronaldo. He also made a few central runs late into the box, taking three shots (with one on target).
Cristiano Ronaldo – £12.4m forward
Playing as the central striker, Ronaldo was a constant threat to Palace defenders. He took five shots in the game, with one on target and two blocked. On another day, we could easily have seen him getting on the score sheet but Palace’s good defensive blocks denied that here.
Fred – £4.9m midfielder
It’s not because he scored the only goal in this match, but because he was the match’s most interesting player due to the positions he took up – similar to what Konrad Laimer did for RB Leipzig in the 2019-20 season on his way to two goals and six assists. Fred was most advanced of the two central midfielders, moving mostly to the left.
