What Does Ralf Mean For You?
The Lokomotiv Moscow man heads to Manchester
Signing Ralf Rangnick, current Head of Sports and Development for Lokomotiv Moscow, on a half (or is it two and a half) year deal to manage the Red Devils has been widely lauded as the *best move United could make at this juncture*. Leaving aside the litany of crap moves they made to arrive at this spot, inking Ralf Rangnick - the “Father of Modern Football”, the “Godfather of German Coaching”, the “Guy Who Is Decidedly Not Ole Gunnar Solskjaer” - is a great move. Signing him on a six-month contract to manage a hodgepodge of talent and quagmire of egos may be something short of great.
If you are credited with popularizing (if not outright inventing) gegenpressing, with influencing the styles of Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann (among others), and managing is like breathing but it is also undisputed that he has never managed a team of this size or a collection of superstars of this magnitude. I can’t speak to his ability to win the locker room - a task surely compromised further by the well-publicized brevity of the appointment - and several players including Paul Pogba (contract expires at the end of the season) and Cristiano Ronaldo (never willingly gone through a ‘rebuild’) likely weighing January departures.
But what I want to talk about are the players who could receive a bump to their FPL value. While I’m focusing on FPL draft scoring here, this iteration of United does have a group of players who’s draft and OFPL scores align pretty closely.
The Winners