Hailed as the visionary who inspired Jürgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann to their Gegenpressing heights, Ralf Rangnick is considered by tactical experts to be among the most influential minds in modern football.
But the man who once played for Southwick FC in the ninth tier of English football is largely unknown by the wider public outside Germany and Austria, where he has spent the vast majority of his coaching career. This is despite nearly being appointed England manager on two separate occasions, and, if you believe the rumour mill, almost landing the top jobs at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United at various stages in the last decade (not to mention Everton and AC Milan). So, as numerous British tabloids asked when he was linked to the Three Lions job, who is he?
Rangnick’s emergence as a household name in Germany arguably began with a memorable appearance on ZDF’s Sport-studio while still a lower league manager in the late 1990s. Dressed like a secondary school physics teacher, Rangnick was dubbed the Fuβballprofessor for his sophisticated blackboard explanation of pressing to a live studio audience.
If Rangnick’s tactical influence on aspiring German coaches mirrors Marcelo Bielsa’s on their Argentinian equivalents in Diego Simeone and Mauricio Pochettino, his career has been similarly defined more by its near-misses than by its successes. It has been the style of his teams, rather than their trophies, that has attracted plaudits.
After early success at Ulm, Hannover and Stuttgart, Rangnick narrowly missed out on the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup while coach of Schalke in 2005. But the man who once played in the English ninth tier for Southwick FC probably made his greatest impression at Hoffenheim – initially by gaining first ever promotions into the second and then first divisions for the village side, and then by storming to the top of the Bundesliga table in their first season there (earning them the informal title of Herbstmeister for being top at Christmas).
Hoffenheim’s breathless attacking style yielded spectacular victories (hitting at least 3 goals in 9 of their first 17 games, including memorable 4-1 wins against Dortmund, 5-2 at Hannover and 3-0 against early pace-setters Hamburg) and thrilling defeats (such as 5-4 to Bremen and 5-2 to Leverkusen). Rangnick’s methods earned grudging respect from German fans otherwise wary of this billionaire-backed club.
But then Rangnick’s Sliding Doors moment – with Vedad Ibisevic, scorer of 18 goals in 17 games before Christmas, sustaining cruciate ligament damage in a mid-season friendly in La Manga and unable to play for the rest of the season. Hoffenheim’s campaign foundered – shorn of their Bosnian talisman, they slipped to a creditable but ultimately underwhelming 6th place finish.
After boardroom disagreements brought a bitter end to his time at Hoffenheim, Rangnick popped up at Schalke again in 2011. Improbably, he steered the mid-table team to a Champions League semi-final against Manchester United after a spectacular 5-2 first leg away win over Inter Milan. Although the unlikely combination of Rooney and Anderson prevented his Null-Vier side from reaching the final, Rangnick did win his first ever national trophy that season, thanks to a 5-0 defeat of second tier Duisburg in the DFB Cup final. In hindsight, this rare silverware feels bittersweet, however – with Rangnick resigning due to burnout just four months later.
Since then, Rangnick’s primary involvement has been at the twin Red Bull upstarts of Salzburg and Leipzig. An improved version of the Hoffenheim model on numerous levels, this project has seen swashbuckling football heavily shaped by Rangnick’s various coaching and directorial roles at both clubs (not to mention at the other members of the RB empire). It has also brought success –promotion to the Bundesliga with Leipzig, numerous Austrian titles for Salzburg and qualification for the Champions League for both clubs.
But, like the rest of his career, this journey feels tantalisingly unfulfilled – a heavy cup final defeat to Bayern Munich last year is the closest that he and Leipzig have come to a major German trophy so far.
Perhaps this will change, with domestic and even European silverware seemingly inevitable for Leipzig in the coming seasons. But with protégé Klopp already a Bundesliga and Champions League winner, and apparently weeks away from a first Premier League title, Rangnick’s methods have all the success they need to justify his reputation as one of modern football’s great revolutionaries. With thrilling attacking styles in the tactical ascendancy across Europe, football is the real winner.
Gegenpress 