2024-04-26 07:13:00
After numerous rejections from other candidates, Ralf Rangnick is once again the focus of FC Bayern. There he could turn the entire club around – a task with which he has extensive experience. But it also took a psychological toll.
On December 18, 1998, a green tactics board changed the course of German football. A boyish-looking man with rimless glasses despite his 40 years explained the football of the coming millennium to the Republic on the ZDF program “Sportstudio”.
He said sentences like: “The back four is just a means to an end for us” and used terms like “basic order”, “pushing forward”, “staggering in depth” or “moving in full-backs”.
His nickname was “Tactics Professor”
To answer this question, it helps to take a look back at the “Sportstudio” appearance mentioned at the beginning. At a time when Lothar Matthäus had just made his comeback to the national team at the age of 37, when libero dominated the league and tough man-marking and fore-stoppers were part of German football, the appearance was tantamount to a revolution. The tabloids then gave Rangnick the nickname “Tactics Professor.” Many of his coaching colleagues turned up their noses.
Over the next quarter century, Rangnick shaped the tactical development of German football like no other. He was a pioneer of ball-oriented zonal coverage and thus revolutionized the country of the libero. However, promotion with Ulm didn’t happen because Rangnick moved to VfB Stuttgart prematurely. The SSV team he built still rose.
Both in Stuttgart and at his next stops in Hanover and Schalke, Rangnick shaped teams according to his tactical style. And for the most part with success. He saved Stuttgart from relegation and then won the UI Cup; He led Hanover into the Bundesliga with exhilarating football. Once there, even the then Chancellor and 96 Noble fan Gerhard Schröder praised Rangnick’s work during a visit to the stadium.
Always trouble with the alphas
But: Despite all the football spectacle, the coach also repeatedly caused offense – mostly with so-called alpha animals who were considered to have strong opinions. In Stuttgart he suspended club icon Krassimir Balakov, and in Hanover there were regular disagreements with president and financier Martin Kind. The climax of this development came at FC Schalke.
“If they need a psychologist, they should come up to me. We don’t need it.”
Rangnick started there at the end of September 2004 and brought the team from 17th place to number one within six months. Although at the end of the season he only managed to reach runner-up status in the championship and cup, the fans were at his feet.
In the desire to continue to develop the club, Rangnick focused on numerous details that he saw as needing improvement around the team. Sometimes downright dogged, as some of his colleagues later accused him.
Among other things, the ambitious coach suggested that his manager Rudi Assauer get a sports psychologist after missing the championship. The manager’s flippant answer: “Listen, if they need a psychologist, they should come to me. We don’t need it.”
This example shows that Rangnick was ahead of his time not only tactically – because sports psychological support is now completely normal in the Bundesliga. However, the Swabian, often referred to as a concept trainer, often failed to convey his ideas.