Rangnick returns from painful statements about Ronaldo from 2016

Friday, December 3, 2021 at 13:13• Dominic Mostert

Ralf Rangnick is looking forward to working with Cristiano Ronaldo. The new interim manager of Manchester United watched the match against Arsenal (3-2 win) from the stands on Thursday evening and saw Ronaldo excel with two goals. Rangnick notices an enormous enthusiasm CR7 and hopes that his teammates at Manchester United will follow the example of the 36-year-old forward.

Rangnick is the founder of the Red Bull philosophy of gene pressing: in the event of a loss of the ball, a team tries to regain possession of the ball as quickly and as high as possible instead of falling back. At his first press conference as interim coach, he is asked whether a chaste star like Ronaldo will have to conform to Rangnick’s philosophy. “You should always adapt your style and your ideas about football to the player material you have, not the other way around,” he makes clear.

“In the second half of yesterday’s game you could see again that Cristiano is an incredible professional. I’ve never seen anyone so fit at his age,” Rangnick continues. “He is still a player who can easily make a difference. However, it is about developing the whole team, not just Cristiano. We play in the most competitive league in the world and we need all the players. Yesterday I saw that Cristiano is more than willing to contribute. His teammates will have to do the same.”

Rangnick also responded indirectly to old statements he made about Ronaldo. In 2016, while still sporting director of RB Leipzig, Rangnick was asked whether he would rather sign Lionel Messi or Ronaldo. “It’s absurd to think that it would go well if they came here to play. They are both too expensive and too old,” Rangnick said at the time. Ronaldo was only thirty years old at the time. Rangnick’s answer meant fitting the stars into his team at the time, with an average age of about 23 years.

Working with big stars like Ronaldo doesn’t surprise Rangnick. “Manchester United are clearly the biggest club I’ve worked for. It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world, if not the biggest. It’s a huge challenge, but I’ve worked with big stars at Schalke 04 before.” Rangnick is in principle appointed as interim coach until the end of the season. The possibility of a longer stay has not yet been discussed, he says when asked. “The people I spoke to were very clear: it is currently a role for six to six and a half months.”

“We never talked about what could happen in the summer. I am fully aware that the club may be looking for a new coach,” Rangnick said. “If the club starts a conversation with me, we’ll see. If everything has gone well and the team has developed, and the club asks my opinion, then I might give the same advice as I did twice at RB Leipzig: that “It may be wise to continue with me for another year. But that’s all hypothetical. We can’t talk about that yet. For me, it’s about winning the next few games.”