sport news Ralf Rangnick was mocked when he took on Der Kaiser's tactics but now he is ...

sport news Ralf Rangnick was mocked when he took on Der Kaiser's tactics but now he is ...
sport news Ralf Rangnick was mocked when he took on Der Kaiser's tactics but now he is ...

The night the bespectacled nerd in a grey suit and tie took on Der Kaiser of German football, Franz Beckenbauer, there would only be one winner – and it wasn't Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick.

'Kopfmensch' was one of the more polite terms thrown at Rangnick that night, which translates literally a person full of head knowledge, the implication being that they lack emotional intelligence. 

Geek might be the closest word in English. In fairness, he did look a little like an art critic on Melvyn Bragg's South Bank Show, never a good look when trying to win over the football establishment.

Ralf Rangnick's appearance on German TV channel ZDF Sport-studio in 1998 was not very successful - the then-Ulm manager took on the German football establishment's tactical ideas

Ralf Rangnick's appearance on German TV channel ZDF Sport-studio in 1998 was not very successful - the then-Ulm manager took on the German football establishment's tactical ideas

Rangnick, manager at second-tier Ulm, a backwater of German football, had the audacity to go on German TV and explain the tactical revolution his team was implementing and why everyone else was wrong.

This was 1998 and Rangnick, 40, was an up-and-coming young coach explaining to TV viewers why the sweeper system, perfected by Beckenbauer into a German football institution, was outdated. 

In fact, he pretty much told the viewers of ZDF Sport-studio that everything German football had ever believed in was now defunct.

Warming to his theme, Rangnick used a tactics board to demonstrate why pressing the ball and using a back four with zonal marking was far superior to man marking and a sweeper system. 

'I think we have the problem in Germany that many players have been trained in a completely different way and perhaps that's why it takes a bit longer in Germany to convey that style of football to a team,' enthused Rangnick, a player whose career had peaked in the third division.

'In Germany, it's primarily about being one-on-one with the opponents. But we've seen here that it's often the case that you can be marking

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