Rangnick had picked up on technical titbits along the way to tweak them and develop his own system of football which is now regarded as the “Gegenpressing”. In essence, Gegenpressing an “intense style of football that sees a team press high when out of possession in order to win the ball back as soon as they lose it.” As quoted by Rangnick himself, the transitional phases of losing or gaining possession of the ball is game changing. 

Rangnick coaches his team to finish the attack with a chance on goal or win the ball back within 8-10 seconds which works in conjunction with systematic pressing on and off the ball. This requires players of his side to be relatively young and extremely energetic as what he expects from them is quite demanding. He’s always on the lookout for appropriate players that fit his system in the 17-23 years demographic. 

Ralf Rangnick is known to have uplifted football clubs from division leagues such as Hannover 96, 1899 Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig to the German Bundesliga within an impressive short spell at the respective football clubs. Eventually, he took up the position of a Sporting Director at RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig followed by two interim spells as a Manager at RB Leipzig until Julian Nagelsmann was available to take it up in 2019 and Rangnick returned to becoming the Sporting Director overseeing the Sporting & Technical structure at RB Leipzig. 

Managers including Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea) and Julian Nagelsmann (Bayern Munich) have been greatly influenced by Ralf Rangnick. The German genius has also given rise to some incredible talents such as Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) and Naby Keïta (Liverpool) as well. 

Exciting times lay ahead as the English Premier League looks to welcome the “German Professor” who has been appointed as the interim Manager of Manchester United until the end of the ongoing season followed by a two year consultancy/advisory role to restructure and resurrect the spirit of Old Trafford that the fans of Manchester United have been yearning for.