Who would have thought that after three rounds of EURO 2024 Austria would be the surprise of the tournament so far? And yet here we are, looking at the Austrians, who are first in Group D and are waiting for their opponent in the Round of 16, who will come on Wednesday night from Group F (Turkey or Czech Republic). Below them is one of the biggest favourites to win the competition, France, and the always competitive Netherlands. The Austrians were equal with France for 90 minutes and lost only due to an own goal, while they defeated the Dutch 3-2 and, of course, brushed off Poland 3-1. For some more dedicated fans out there, this is not such a surprise, not just because they managed to qualify for the knockout stage for the second time in a row, but because of one man – Ralf Rangnick.Cristiano Ronaldo said Ralf Rangnick was “not even a coach” after he was hired as Man United manager 👀Rangnick has just led Austria to the top of a Euros group that had France and the Netherlands in 📈 pic.twitter.com/RFj9XQTeDB— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) June 25, 2024 The ’Godfather’ of the ‘gegenpressing’ tactic employed by Jurgen Klopp and Julian Nagelsmann was always a successful and highly influencing coach, but one of his rare failures was one club – Manchester United. Ralf Rangnick arrived at Old Trafford on December 3 2021 and led the team in a total of 29 games in all competitions, achieving only 11 victories, of which 10 in the Premier League in 24 matches. He also recorded nine draws and nine defeats, and even though he came as an interim manager and was supposed to stay as an advisor, he left the club altogether in May 2022. He and his ideas were never given a proper chance really, nor by the players or by the club’s executives. And what were his ideas anyway?United didn’t listen to Ranginck’s advices, but City didWell, as he was hoping to stay as an advisor after May 2022, he focused on the recruiting department. His suggestions to the board for the 2022 June transfer window were: Erling Haaland (was still with Dortmund), Luis Diaz (now Liverpool), Julian Alvares (came as a free agent to City), Florian Wirtz, Josko Gvardiol (now City) and Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea) among others. Wirtz was 70 million pounds worth and only 18 at the time. He is now worth much more and will probably leave for Real Madrid next season. And what did United do? Well, they did not buy any of those players (obviously), but they brought in Antony (95 million), Casemiro (70 million), Lisandro Martinez (57 million), Rasmus Hojlund (73 million), Mason Mount (64 million) and Andre Onana (50 million).Ten Hag didn’t want him and he tops the UCL assist columnAs a coach, Rangnick proved to be great for Austria, where he had less talent than in Manchester but didn’t have time to do it at Old Trafford, and he didn’t have any help from the players either. Cristiano Ronaldo was never going to play a pressing game and what’s worse, he was so vain that he even suggested to the German tactician that he would like to play in a strike partnership at United rather than as a lone number nine and drew up the formation he would like to play, as per Athletic. Later, he showed total ignorance about his coach.“I don’t know what’s going on, but since Sir Alex Ferguson left, I saw no evolution in the club, the progress was zero. For example, we have an interesting point that, how the club as Manchester United after they sack Ole, they bring in sports director Rangnick, which is something that nobody understands. This guy is not even a coach. A bigger club like Manchester United bringing in a sports director – it surprised not only me but all the world, you know? We have to be honest: if you’re not even a coach, how are you going to be the boss of Manchester United?” he said in an interview before he left the club for good.Wouldn’t you like working six days a month?Former player Gary Neville accused players of undermining Rangnick by giving away the dressing room stories to the media and predicted:“They got the last manager the sack! Ralf Rangnick is not going to get the sack, he’s only had a few weeks with them, but they’ll get a lot of managers the sack, that lot, if they carry on like that. They’ve got to sort themselves out because it’s massively below what’s expected”. He was wrong, Rangnick also to the sack.EURO 2024: Austria finishes above France after Sabitzer’s winner over DutchThere is also one player in that United team who came on for a loan in 2023 and stayed for only three months and played in 11 games during that period. Marcel Sabitzer was quickly loaned back to Bayern Munich (who sold him to Borussia Dortmund a month later) and United paid 64 million for Mason Mount. The former Chelsea academy graduate played only 14 games for that kind of money and was always injured. And Sabitzer? Apart from scoring the winning goal against Netherlands on Tuesday, he became a starter for Borussia and played in the Champions League final (just like Jadon Sancho). The Manchester United reject is officially the Champions League’s assist leader this season (five, just like Vinicius and Bellingham), and he is at position number 61 in the all-time assists list. In that department, Sabitzer is better than Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, David Silva, Drogba, Bernardo Silva, Hazard, Ronaldinho…and he was no good for Manchester United.##NAJAVA_MECA_8183320##
