Manchester United : Why Rangnick Isn't The Solution

Pressing is a very important part of modern football. Currently almost all the top teams such as Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich play on the high line. This system requires a dominating attitude of every member of the team.

Ralph Rangnick, now the interim coach of Manchester United, has been called the godfather of modern press. The problem is, this godfather is not able to implement his philosophy properly in the club. On the contrary, the tactical gaps that existed during the time of his predecessor, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, have added a few new problems. Today's discussion will be individually about two of the club's best performers this season, David de Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo. David De Gea is a traditional keeper, meaning he is more adept at stopping shots from the line than sweeping. Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, is currently a poacher striker. Who wraps the ball in the net whenever he gets a chance from around the opponent's box. They both deal with their confidence as they choose to embark on their play activities. But sadly their current skillset is not suitable for modern football. Ronaldo's problem is that he does not press. When the team loses the ball, he is still close to the final third, his contribution to ball retention is much less. The opposing team used this opportunity. Their defensive line then advances, causing Ronaldo to become isolated. The rest of United then comes down to stop the opponent, and clears out the midfield for the opponent to attack. This problem could have been avoided if Ronaldo had helped with the ball retention by pressing, which we see in Edinson Cavani. At this point, if any one flank is overloaded, United will break up.

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Now let's talk about De Gea. Many would disagree in this place, but there is hardly a solid argument against it. If United start to rise above the high line during the attack, De Gea will still be on his line. United's own defensive third will be completely empty if they go up to press the defense line. This place could have been better covered and avoided the 1v1 situations if De Gea had played the sweeper role upstairs. Otherwise, when they go to play high line, after losing the ball, most of the time they give the opponent a huge amount of space at the counter. Added to this are their fragile midfielders. If a good destroyer had been in their place, the damage could have been reduced to a lesser extent. Not only that, in this case after losing the ball the whole team has to come back because the ball can't be won by the forwards or midfielders. But even if everyone goes back, Ronaldo doesn't come back. This cycle continues.

A common problem at Ole's system was that United's formation would have been 4-2-4 in the middle of the match. It is a classic formation that Brazil used in the 60's to win the World Cup. But playing with it in modern football is nothing but suicide. The reason for this formation is that the forward line stays behind even when their forward line is pressed during the attack (fullbacks touch the sideline even when they go up). As a result, Fred and McTomney, who were in midfield, become completely isolated. Because the defense is absolutely behind and the forward is absolutely in front. The opponent outnumbered United in midfield. As a result, the little control that United is supposed to have in this quality of midfielders is also lost. Although this problem is not as obvious as before, it is often seen again. If De Gea had played the role of sweeper and Ronaldo had pressed for ball retention, there would have been more stability in United's transitions. In a word, the issue here is compactness. The philosophy of modern total football is compactness both vertical and horizontal. Both the backline gap with the keeper and the midfielder gap with the backline create a big problem. The striker's gap with the midfielder is not always a problem but the pressing is a problem. Now both of them have crossed their 30's. It is no longer possible to change their game in such a way. It is certain that Ronaldo will be in rotation most of the time from next season. However, the matter of De Gea is a little complicated. On the other hand, there has been a long running debate over whether De Gea or Henderson will be number one. Or someone else may come in from outside. For now, the management will not bother at all.

Needless to say, this is one of the many problems United is facing. Not the main or the only problem. The club will have to rise again by slowly finding a solution to all these with a cool and steady mind.