Klopp: Rangnick arrival ‘not good news for other teams’

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes Ralf Rangnick’s expected arrival at arch-rivals Manchester United is “not good news for other teams”.

Klopp’s fellow German is set to be installed as interim manager at Old Trafford until the end of the season following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Rangnick has had some influence on the Liverpool boss in terms of the pressing style which has been so successful for him and Klopp knows exactly what to expect.

“Unfortunately a good coach is coming to England, that’s how it is, to Manchester United,” he said.

“Ralf is obviously a really experienced manager. He built most famously two clubs from nowhere to proper threats and forces in Germany with Hoffenheim and Leipzig.

“United will be organised on the pitch, we should realise that – that’s obviously not good news for other teams.”

United are hopeful of reaching an agreement with Lokomotiv Moscow for Rangnick to be released to become the club’s interim manager in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Negotiations between the clubs have been positive, with Rangnick currently manager of sports and development at the Russian club.

Rangnick, 63, will apply for a work permit once an agreement is reached, with the German expected to remain at United for two years beyond the season in a consultancy role.

How Rangnick revolutionised German football

Sky Sports’ Nick Wright:

Rangnick describes it as his “football epiphany”. It was February 1983 and, aged 25, he was serving as player-manager of Viktoria Backnang, a small-town team in Germany’s sixth tier, when Valeriy Lobanovskiy’s Dynamo Kiev turned up for a mid-season friendly.

Lobanovskiy’s side were regarded as the strongest in the Soviet Union and it was no surprise they easily swatted their amateur opponents aside. But the manner in which they did it made a lasting impression on Rangnick, a bewildered figure in central midfield.

“A few minutes in, when the ball had gone out for a throw, I had to stop and count the opposition players,” he recalls in Raphael Honigstein’s book, Das Reboot.

“That was the first time I felt what it was like to come up against a team who systematically pressed the ball.”

Lobanovskiy’s relentless, organised pressing tactics would form the basis of Rangnick’s own philosophy, one he would later implement at a string of clubs including Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, helping to revolutionise German football, inspire a generation of coaches including Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, and, ultimately, take him to the Manchester United hotseat.

Read more on Rangnick’s rise to prominence