Who is Ralf Rangnick and why is He known as The Godfather of Gegenpressing
(Credit : Bongarts/ Getty Images /Lars Baron )
Ralf Rangnick is a German Sporting director and former manager. He is currently a free agent after his failed move to Milan last season in January because he left Red Bull Leipzig. Currently there’s rumors that he’s the favorite to become Newcastle’s new sporting director after the Ambitious take over by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) recently.
Let’s get to know Ralf Rangnick
He never played professional football he was just book smart nothing else to say . He became coach around the age of 19/20 years his first professional job was around of at the age of 25 as a manager . His first major job was at SSV Reutlingen in Germany’s 5th division .
Ralf Rangnick Achievements as manager
- As a manger he won
- 1x German super cup
- 1x German League Cup
- 1x Bundesliga 2
- 2x Austrian cups
- 2x Austrian champion
- 1x DFB pokal
( credit : Ran . De)
For someone who never played Top flight football he has an excellent Football C.V.
Managers that were inspired by Ralf tactics and philosophies
- Marco Rose,
- Roger Schmidt
- Adi Hutter
- Ralph Hasenhuttl,
- Jesse Marsch
- Julian Naggelsmann
- Jürgen Klopp ( indirectly)
- Thomas Tuchel
- Oliver Glasner
- Danny röhl ( flick assistant )
As you can see most of the managers inspired by certain philosophies of Ralf are pretty established managers .
Pep is an honorable mention because when he was at Bayern he learned from Ralf Rangnick’s Positional play to be more pragmatic to perfect his system.
Jürgen Klopp was indirectly inspired by Ralf because his mentor at Mainz Frank Wolfgang shared some similar philosophies with Ralf .
What is Rangnick’s philosophy that has inspired many high profile Bundesliga managers?
Before we get into his philosophies I’ll briefly explain what and who was his inspirations in football for his philosophies. His biggest Inspiration is Arrigo Sacchi the Legendary Ac Milan manager .
Rangnick really loved Sacchi space oriented defending and ball oriented defending philosophies which was something German teams really didn’t use at the time.
He liked Sacchi pressing philosophies as well but he slightly changed it. At the time in Germany the popular formation and style of play was 3–5–2 with liberos. He was never a huge fan of back three formations and he thought it was time for a drastic change in play.
The pressing of his hoffenheim team for an instance.
Rangnick is responsible for most of Germany’s Transitional games nowadays and that’s the style of football you notice in midtable clubs for the most part.
I know good portion of you guys can’t understand German but watch his explaination of his Geggenpressing in this interview by the movements on the mini board.
Why were the Red Bull Franchises were successful under Ralf Rangnick ?
- His philosophies what was Red Bull Stands and believes in
- His massive and big eye for talent especially youth talent
I don’t know how many know this but Ralf Rangnick believes that the youth should be heavily invested and that’s what the German teams have been doing since the 90s ditching slowly the 3–5–2. Slowly implementing back 4 systems , aggressive pressing , transitional play etc.
At the Red Bull franchises in Europe he found and bought players like
- Timo Werner
- Naby keïta
- Joshua Kimmich
- Sadio mané
- Joshua kimmich
- Erling Håaland
- Dayot Upamecano
- Paston Daka
A very incredible set of players he has scouted and all have been successful since leaving the Red Bull franchises to go on with their careers .
He has an excellent eye for talent and he’s one of the best in Europe as sporting directors along with Luis campos .
If he’s so good then why has he been unemployed for so long ?
When Ralf Rangnick is in charge of a team either as a Sporting Director or manager he demands to oversee the youth and he must be in charge of all the transfers which most clubs won’t allow usually . With Newcastle and the financial power they now have I’m sure if he gets the job in no time Newcastle will be in force in England eventually in Europe as well .