“Why Ralf Rangnick will succeed at Man Utd” – Owen Hargreaves

Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves believes incoming Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick will succeed at the club.

The German is expected to be named as the Red Devils interim manager in the next 48 hours on a six-month deal, and is in line to take up a two-year consultancy role thereafter.

Rangnick is widely seen as the brain behind the ‘gegenpressing’ and also inspired a host of top managers in his native Germany including Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel, Ralph Hasenhuttl and Julian Nagelsmann.

Owen Hargreaves told Premier League Productions: “Every job he touched improved significantly.

“The first time it was Ulm, a tiny little team and they came out of nowhere. You think about Hoffenheim and you think about the Red Bull projects, Leipzig and Salzburg.

“He is an innovator and he’s a football man and that’s a beautiful thing.

“He’s got great experience, he plays the right way. When my Bayern Munich team played against them in the Bundesliga we didn’t have to do too much in terms of detail because we were better than the opposition most of the time, but you notice.

“They beat one of Jurgen Klopp’s teams 4-1 and after Jurgen Klopp said he wanted his teams to play like that. How big of a compliment do you want to make somebody?”

Hargreaves revealed a message he sent to compatriot Bastian Schweinsteiger when the reports first broke, joking that German managers were ‘taking over’ the English top flight.

“You think about the way he’s inspired other managers,” Hargreaves added.

“I texted one of my friends, Bastian Schweinsteiger, today and I said: ‘Listen, the Germans are taking over the Premier League!’

“It’s amazing because they did just a great job of educating these coaches, the next generation, and that’s great. A lot of the best coaches all around the world are German at the moment.

“Credit to him for inspiring that generation and maybe they’ve taken on his teachings and tweaked it a little bit to their style. But to get a compliment from Tuchel and Klopp, you couldn’t get any bigger ones.”

Hagreaves is also not concerned by the German coach’s lack of silverware on his managerial CV considering he’s never coached an elite club.

“Ralf Rangnick took Schalke to a Champions League semi-final and that wasn’t a team that should have been in a Champions League semi-final,” he went on.

“I can’t think of one job he’s done where he hasn’t overachieved.

“The whole trophy thing, I’m not too worried about that because he’s never had a group of players like this.

“For his body of work and all the years he’s had in football, this is a gift to him.

“He’s probably not 100 per cent sure either, but it’s an exciting opportunity to take that group with his experience.

“I think the sky’s the limit, but he’s going to have to get in there are see, ‘When can I push and when can I back off and when do I have to bring the older guys on board – the [Raphael] Varanes and [Cristiano] Ronaldos – and get their opinion?’, because I think it’s going to be delicate the first few weeks.”