Ralf Rangnick leaves Man Utd: What an utter waste of time

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 5 min read

Manchester United confirmed on Sunday that Ralf Rangnick would not be staying on at the club as a consultant, as had originally been planned.

Rangnick was appointed Man Utd interim coach in December until the end of the season - with the plan being that he would then step down and act as a consultant to the next permanent coach, who ended up being Erik ten Hag.

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However, after being appointed as the Austria national team’s new coach, Rangnick has decided to focus entirely on his new job in international management.

What did Man Utd say about Rangnick?

“We would like to thank Ralf Rangnick for his efforts as interim manager over the past six months,” read a Man Utd statement.

“By mutual agreement, Ralf will now focus solely on his new role as manager of the Austria national team and will not therefore be taking up a consultancy role at Old Trafford.

“We would like to wish Ralf the best of luck in this next chapter of his career.”

An article on Man Utd’s official website further read, “Rangnick took charge at the beginning of December and led the team through the remainder of a challenging season, with his spell as interim boss providing United with crucial time to conduct a thorough search for our next manager, resulting in the appointment of Erik ten Hag.

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“He will now take charge of Austria for their upcoming Nations League fixtures, as they face Croatia, Denmark and France in Group A1.

“Once again, we are grateful to Ralf for all his hard work and wish him the best for the future.”

Rangnick and Man Utd's disastrous season

So comes to an end a completely pointless exercise which did not benefit Man Utd in any way, shape or form – either in the short term, medium term or long term.

For starters, appointing an interim coach in December made no sense. There were still six months of the season remaining, with Man Utd well in contention to finish in the top four and still in the Champions League and FA Cup. There was plenty of silverware to play for and many objectives still very reachable.

But United sent out a message that they were writing off the rest of the campaign by hiring a manager on an interim basis. This was backed up by their January transfer market in which they actually weakened the squad by offloading attackers and bringing no one in.

No big club behaves in this manner when there is still more than half the season remaining. Could you imagine Real Madrid or Man City or Bayern Munich or Juventus – however well or badly they are performing – appointing a caretaker in December?

In the 2020-21 season, Chelsea were enduring a season that was even more disastrous than Man Utd’s when they sacked Frank Lampard in January 2021. They didn’t mess around with a temporary solution, they hired Thomas Tuchel. And a few months later they were European champions and comfortably qualified in the top four.

Hiring a coach in Rangnick who was renowned for being the grandfather of gegenpressing and high-intensity play also made little sense mid-season when a 36-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo was leading the attack.

Unsurprisingly Rangnick did not improve Man Utd’s style of play and, after the usual new manager bounce early on, they soon reverted back to the same results they achieved under the German’s predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

United ended the season with their lowest points tally, 58, since the Premier League began in 1992. Their previous worst was 64 in 2014.

Not only that, they had fewer wins than any previous season. Their 16 victories were a low mark in the modern era and continued the trend of decline since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

They conceded 57 Premier League goals, another record figure – surpassing the 54 they let in during 2018-19. Only twice had they conceded more than 45.

United’s goal difference of 0 is also their worst-ever in the Premier League era. Their previous worst goal difference was in the 2018-19 season when they ended the campaign on +11.

And what is just as frustrating for Man Utd fans is that – despite this immediate failure – there is nothing that Rangnick did to set the team or club up for success under Ten Hag.

Despite the Dutchman also being a coach who likes to play with a high line with pressing and intensity, we saw none of that under Rangnick. Ten Hag will have to start from scratch to implement his own system.

By February or March, Rangnick had lost all respect among the squad and fans. There was no way he was going to be able to move upstairs and command any kind of authority having failed so dismally on the pitch.

For that reason, it was for the best he has now cut ties completely with the club.

From start to finish, it was a complete waste of time and just the latest in a long line of disastrous and inexplicable decisions made by the Man Utd hierarch over the last decade.