Praise for ‘amazing professional’ Ronaldo
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
in 90 per cent of the past 25 years.”
Rangnick spoke in glowing terms about
the potential of the squad, who are sev-
enth in the Premier League, but con-
ceded that the club had lost their ident-
ity since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in
2013.
“Having had Sir Alex for 27 years is
unique so it’s not that unusual after
such a long and successful spell, the
club needs to find a new pathway,” he
said. “There have been five managers
since Sir Alex left and therefore it was
difficult for the club to gain continuity
in regard to signing new players and
sticking to the DNA and I think it is vi-
tal in modern football that you do that.”During his time in charge of the likes
of Hoffenheim, Schalke and RB Leip-
zig, Rangnick has implored his players
to press high up the pitch. Cristiano
Ronaldo is not known for his desire to
harry defenders, but Rangnick said that
he will learn to work with the Portu-
guese star, who scored two goals in the
3-2 win over Arsenal on Thursday.
“You always have to adapt your style
or your idea of football to the players
you have available, not vice versa,” Ran-
gnick added. “Having seen Cristiano
yesterday in the second half at the age
of 36, he’s an amazing professional. At
his age, I’ve never seen a player who is
still that physically fit. He’s still a player
who can easily make the difference.”
Rangnick revealed that he had solic-
ited the advice of his predecessor, OleGunnar Solskjaer, who was sacked two
weeks ago. “He was very generous to
spend 1½ hours on the phone with me
telling me his insight and details about
the team,” Rangnick said.
The German failed to persuade
Solskjaer’s coach, Michael Carrick, to
stay on, but is happy to work with the
Norwegian’s other staff members, Kier-
an McKenna and Mike Phelan. He will
bring in up to three of his own coaches.
Rangnick cautioned against the idea
that he will sign a number of players in
January. “It only makes sense if you can
get players who can almost guarantee
you more quality,” he said.
Rangnick described one claim that
he will earn an £8.5 million bonus if he
persuades Erling Haaland to join from
Borussia Dortmund as “nonsense”.The sight of five goals flying in at Old
Trafford brought many Manchester
United and Arsenal fans to their feet on
Thursday, but for much of the evening,
Ralf Rangnick sat uncomfortably in his
padded seat in the directors’ box.
United’s new interim manager was
happy with his attackers, particularly in
the second half as United won 3-2
thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo double
and a goal from Bruno Fernandes.‘Arsenal win
was not my
idea of control’
Paul HirstRalf Rangnick was unable to take to the
dugout at Old Trafford this week
because of the red tape involved in
his visa application but he has not
wasted one second since he landed in
Manchester on Monday.
Rangnick spent 90 minutes picking
the brains of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on
the phone; in a 30-minute call with the
co-chairman Joel Glazer he discussed
his vision for the club; and he had a
lengthy chat with Michael Carrick.
The 63-year-old went on a guided
tour of Old Trafford on Wednesday too,
taking a look at the pitch, the dressing
rooms and the corridors furnished with
images of successes of yesteryear. John
Murtough, the United football director,
was his chaperone.
Even during his downtime, Rangnick
has been doing all he can to prepare
himself. “On Tuesday night in my hotel
room I was looking through the most
famous players of Manchester United,”
Rangnick said yesterday at his unveil-
ing at Old Trafford. “You could create
four or five top line-ups from those
players in the last 50 years.
“I was even looking back to the times
of George Best and Bobby Charlton.
They are famous players.”
Rather than be overawed by the
prospect of following in the footsteps of
greatness, searching through the
annals of history stirred two other emo-
tions: excitement and nostalgia.
Rangnick may have been born in
Backnang, 19 miles northeast of
Stuttgart, but English football has held
a special place in his heart since 1979,
when he spent a year at the University
of Sussex while studying for an English
and physical education degree.
“That was one of the most memora-
ble years of my youth,” he said. “I lived
with a host family, the Seymour family,
in Hove, very close to the currentEra of Charlton
and Best shapes
Rangnick vision
2 1GS Saturday December 4 2021 | the times
WEEKEND
BRIEFING
Ones to watch
West Ham United host
top-of-the-table
Chelsea. Thomas Tuchel’s
side won at the London
Stadium in April but West
Ham have a history of
upsetting their rivals.
12.30pm, BT Sport 1Saudi Arabia hosts the
penultimate grand prix
of the season with Max
Verstappen leading Lewis
Hamilton by eight points in
the drivers’ standings.
Tomorrow, 5.30pm,
Sky Sports Main EventGuess the star
Name this former world No 1
golfer lifting the US Open
trophy at Merion Golf Club.
He has played in five Ryder
Cups, winning three, and
was tied fourth in his first
major when playing as a
teenage amateur.
Answer on page 10Women’s FA Cup
Arsenal meet Chelsea in the
2021 Women’s FA Cup final at
Wembley 15 months after the
first round was played. Both
have seven wins out of eight
games in the WSL this season.
Tomorrow, 2pm, BBC OneGuess the season
6 Tottenham Hotspur record
their first win away to
Liverpool since 1912
6 England win 8-0 away to
Turkey in the first meeting
between the teams
6 Norwich City lift the
League Cup
Answer on page 13On the box
TODAY
12.30pm Saracens W v
Bristol Bears W, Premier 15s
BBC iPlayer
3pm Exeter Chiefs v
Saracens, Gallagher Prem
BT Sport 2
5.30pm Watford v
Manchester City, PL
Sky Sports Main Event, talkSPORT
TOMORROW
4am India v New Zealand,
Second Test, day three
Sky Sports Cricket, talkSPORT23pm Leicester Tigers v
Harlequins, Gallagher Prem
BT Sport 2, talkSPORT2
4.30pm Aston Villa v
Leicester, PL
Sky Sports Main Event[Brighton & Hove Albion] stadium. I fell
in love with English football. For me,
that is football in the purest sense.
Twice per week I took the fast train
from Brighton to Victoria station to ei-
ther go to the theatre or watch games.”
After arriving in central London,
Rangnick’s next destination was either
White Hart Lane to watch the wizardry
of Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle or
to Highbury to see Alan Sunderland
and Frank Stapleton bang in the goals
for Arsenal. Occasionally the slight,
football-mad student, who played for
local team Southwick FC, would head
farther afield to watch the champions-
in-waiting, Liverpool, or Everton.
On May 10, 1980 he was one of
100,000 faces in the crowd at Wembley
to watch West Ham United beat
Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup final.
“My [Southwick] team-mates gave
me a ticket,” Rangnick said. “I loved the
British humour of the fans and the way
that they encouraged their teams.”
Rangnick never went to Old Trafford
during his year at university, but he has
visited on a number of occasions since,
most notably in 2011 when United
denied his Schalke team a place in
the Champions League final with a 6-1
aggregate defeat.
“Sir Alex [Ferguson] invited me into
his office after the second leg [which
Schalke lost 4-1],” Rangnick said. “I
think he enjoyed the glass of wine more
than I did because we had no chance
whatsoever in that game.”
Ten years on, Rangnick will occupy
the manager’s seat in the home dugout
when his team play Crystal Palace
tomorrow afternoon. Take a look at his
CV and you may wonder why. This is
his 15th job in management and the
only significant piece of silverware that
he has won is the DFB-Pokal, the Ger-
man domestic cup, in 2011 with Schalke.
When asked what his greatest
accomplishment was, he started listing
the lower-league promotions he
achieved with Backnang, Ulm, Han-
nover and Hoffenheim before going on
to describe his achievements at Schalke
and the Red Bull-sponsored teams, RB
Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.“RB Leipzig was a club that was
founded in 2009 and has won three
promotions in four years,” he said.
“Since then the club has always quali-
fied for European competition.”
To label Rangnick as an undera-
chiever would be wrong, however. The
value of Leipzig and Salzburg has multi-
plied many times over thanks in part to
his nine-year involvement with the Red
Bull project. He set up an extensive,
highly successful scouting system and
imposed his high-energy counterpress-
ing style on the clubs.
He is an ideologue, a man with a plan
and that is exactly what United need
after flip-flopping from one idea to
another over the past 8½ years.
First impressions are key and
Rangnick scored highly on that front
yesterday. Decked out in a smart
charcoal suit with a maroon jumper, he
captivated his audience in an insightful
30-minute press conference that also
went down well with supporters.
When asked where he hoped United
would be by the time his two-year con-
sultancy contract ends in the summer
of 2024, Rangnick said: “In an ideal
world we will be challenging for titles
here and in the Champions League.
We’re still in the Champions League
this year and, depending on the draw,
hopefully we can go further in that
competition.”
There are potential bumps in the
road. Cristiano Ronaldo’s reluctance to
press is one of them, although Ran-
gnick said that he would adapt his style
to accommodate the Portugal star.
Another potential problem is what hap-
pens at the end of the season. When
asked how much influence he would
have in the consultancy role he is set to
take up, Rangnick said: “We haven’t
spoken about that in detail.”
Rangnick gave an upbeat assessment
of a squad packed with “talented young
players” and “top experienced players”.
Speaking about Jadon Sancho, he
said: “I met him when he was 17, in
London. We were trying to convince
him to come to Leipzig but he went to
[Borussia] Dortmund, which was not a
wrong step from his perspective.”Paul
HirstStudying in Sussex was
one of the best years
of my life. I fell in love
with English football