How Rangnick has made Austria genuine contenders 

The british media with limited knowledge outside the premierleague crucified him for nothing. Wanted him to stay as a DoF. He knows ball if you follow him longer than his united stint. And I am a United fan

It’s almost as if Ralf Rangnick wasn’t the problem at Manchester United 🤷🏻‍♂️

So surreal to see my national team being talked about like this. As someome who has been in the stadium during the game when there was a sinkhole on the pitch it feels so insane that we beat the dutch. Talking about "reshaping the mentality" I would like to share something which happened on austrian state television 2 years ago. We played a nations league game against france, we scored the first goal, France equalized in the 83rd minute and Ragnick was really mad in the post-game interview. When the interviewer tried to calm him down by saying "After all we drew against the current world champions" Ralf responded with "Sorry but why after all! We were winning 1:0!". I think this was a small but very symbolic moment which shows how he changed our mentality

I work in advertising and we shot a campaign with Rangnick a few months ago. In addition to him as the main actor, there were also a few extras from the lower leagues. During the breaks, Rangnick did nothing but talk to these no-name players. He even invited them to a training session in Vienna. This man is the embodiment of team spirit and authority.

What I've hardly ever heard anybody talk about as a reason for the current success is the chemistry within this Austrian team. Both among the players and between the trainer team and the players. Ragnick has actually said he loves the team. He didn't say like or really like, he explicitly said love. If you look at the press conference before the Netherlands game where he and Arnautovic were basically joking for 30mins straight but simultaneously were expressing deep respect for each other that's an atmosphere that probably can't get any better for a sports team.

Guys, I'm from Austria, Vienna and this has been the most correct and sophisticated analysis of our team I came across so far. Thank you! The only thing that maybe was a bit overlooked is the fact that Rangnick pretty much invented the RB high pressing style, and the core of the Austrian team either played at Salzburg and/or Leipzig. The rest of the team (except Arnautovic) is filled up with players that would fit this philosophy easily. It should not have been a surprise that our team plays a bit more like a club because of this. The main reason why people did get upset with Franco Fodas approach was because we already knew we had a team who could play Rangnick football, but Foda would not utilize it and played rather old-fashioned counter football.

As an austrian you can't imagine how happy we are about what RR and the team are doing at the moment

On Ralf Rangnick and Marko Arnautovic: Marko has been very candid, that his first thought when Ralf Rangnick was appointed was "Well, that's my career in the NT over". However, before the first international break Ralf Rangnick called him and told Arnautovic his plans in detail and how he absolutely wanted to keep working with him. Ralf Rangnick also very quickly recognised how important "Nautl" is for our team chemistry and atmosphere and they two bonded over some very deep talk about fatherhood and family. The final piece of the puzzle that absolutely solidified the great relation Rangnick and Arnautovic have was our friendly against Italy on November 20th 2022. Arnautovic without exaggeration showed a world class performance, not only when attacking but also by playing great game against the ball and choosing very smart moments to press to the best of his ability. Rangnick has been a fan of his ever since and we're so lucky that Marko is perfectly healthy for the first time in ages just in time for the Euros.

Very happy for RR, vindication for what the United players did to him.

one of the first things he did was make a list with talented austrian young players and invited them to some trainings and see their potential and talk to them what they need to improve to join the first squad... no other austrian coach ever did that

Great episode, I'm impressed how much knowledge you guys have about our small country's national team. Very interesting and refreshing to hear opinions from experts who are not from Austria / Germany.

Arnautovic works because he thought he had to leave when Rannick came in. He said that himself: He tought he was too old and too slow for Rangnicks football style. But Rangnick didn't want him to leave and gave him a new task and purpose. And of course he said to him that he couldn't do it without him. Marko needs that for his Ego. Rangnick is also very good psychologically.

I'm not going to rewrite history and say all United fans were fully behind him during his stint but I think the sentiment immediately after and especially now is that he was brought in to an impossible situation and he should have been allowed to continue as the Director of Football as planned. He sussed out United's problems and wanted to fix them. He was the first person in a while to say, openly, that the whole club needed to be rebuilt. The Glazers spoilt it, as they didn't want to give someone that kind of power. I hope that as the years go on it stops being a sort of black mark against him in the UK.

You could say it all started with David Alaba. He joined the team when he was 17 years old, bringing extrem levels of professionalism from Bayer Munich to the national team. He also won the Champions league very early in his career, so the whole team picked up on that mentality. Even Arnautovic became much more professional because of that. Players started evolving, joining more and more international club teams, giving us a bigger and bigger pool to choose from. Of course at the heart of it was RedBull, but the whole league tactically advanced with this new competition. Nowadays ther are also many successfull austrian coaches in international clubs, like Hasenhüttel, Hütter, Stöger and Oliver Glasner. Since we never had many dribbling magicians in our ranks, we had to focus on what we could compete with on an international level and thats athletics and tactics. This whole process had many years in the making and it's not over. There's many ressources Austrian football can draw from today, talented young players, modernized club tactics and decent coaches. Rangnick took over the national team as one of it's main architects from his time at RedBull. He's putting a team into overdrive, that started evolving more than a decade ago. No matter how this Euro's going, we'll be back for the World Cup, and the tournaments to follow.

I remembered Austria from the last Euros They were good then and I felt they had something special Rangnick's cooking something with Austria.

Media crucified him as per usual then they are the first to spin their Phoenix narrative. It’s tiring. A lot of fans loved Rangnick for speaking the truth about United squad and set up. All power to him.

Great analysis by 3 experts! Well done!

Ayo is such a fantastic presenter. Exhudes passion and has a very likeable personality, clearly does a lot of research to get ready for these shows as well. A joy to watch.

I'd have more faith in them over Southgate's England. Austria is actually playing like a cohesive team, who knew that was important

But I thought he wasn't a football manager? I'm glad his haters are finally seeing that he wasn't the problem.

As a Bayern supporter, i couldn`t be happier for Ralf and for Austria. Glad, he stayed with Austria, avoided the fading glamour and chaos of current Bayern. It would have been the same situation as with Manu. Stubborn and narcissistic characters all over the place, who can`t give up power and controll, making it impossible to rebuild the club. I am rooting for Austria to really go deep, maybe even reach the final. Which is not a reach, but very possible. I don`t really expect Germany to go that far, since we will have to play spain on the way to the final. But a Ralf vs Julian/Austria vs Germany battle in the final, would be epic to watch, to say the least.. By the way: great podcast, guys! Saw it for the first time today, immediately subscribed to the channel.

I have been impressed with the depth pf this squad. Don’t forget they are missing Alaba and X. Schlager. However, the defense has played in three different formations in the group stage and has done extremely well. The fact that Rangnick was even hired by the Austrian federation is nothing short of a miracle. They forced in Foda after Koller and the team fell apart again. I hope that now everyone understands how much of a difference a good manager has on the team!

About Arnautovic: I think the team really needs him in some situations for his experience. If you watched him against the Netherlands you could clearly see he was the trigger for our pressing. If he went at the defender holding the ball you could see the whole midfield started to THROW their bodies at the Netherlands backline. And it worked

The Problem is that England have the last 25 years, the same Manager Types, no risk, no taktic, no idea just boring. I dont remember the last good Trainer there, and this broke my heart, i am a big England Fan from Austria ❤

they basically have an Bundesliga team. Every single player of their first 11 has played in the Bundesliga or is currently playing there and a lot of them have gone through RB school of play so they are familiar with a system which Rangnick employs

His failure at Man Utd wasnt his. Entirely falls upon the upper management

Mark and Seb seem to be extremely knowledgeable and tuned in. Very interesting to listen to

Very much appreciate your in depth analysis of our squad, we don’t really get that from English media. Personally it’s never been so exciting to be a fan of my international side. We‘ve never beaten a tournament winning nation in my lifetime and I am in my 40s now. I don’t think we‘ll win the tournament but the hope to advance one more round and further on is exhilarating

Some topclub boards fear him. Because in the structure he can do any job from ceo to manager. And in terms of iq he is miles ahead of anyone and he is aware of that.

Great podcast, was like several condensed into one. Cheers!

It’s interesting how our perception of players changes based on how cohesive and fluid a team plays. Those same players, under a different manager and system, might have struggled and we would be here saying “those are good players, but they aren’t very technical and skilled”.

Ralf Rangnick was crucified by the media and not Manchester United fans. Yes his stint was a disaster but he was praised by Manchester United fans for exposing the rot within our club. I'm glad he's doing very well with Austria and at the same time pissed off how the garbage players of our threw him under the bus because they are cancer and couldn't hack it in his system. The media owes Rangnick an apology.

Most impressive side so far in my opinion, however still a way to go. They remind me of the Danish side of 92 in a way.

Konny Laimer halb mensch halb maschine

Ragnick could be a huge opportunity for austrian football in general. he already made media noise by trying pressure politicians and the öfb to build more and better stadium as an investment into the future. with his involvement I hope we can improve autrias football quality overall in terms of youth development, coaching, attractiveness of the domestic league, match attendance etc.

People focus so much on Austria’s system and say that they lack quality but even quality-wise they are massively underrated. Austria’s center back Kevin Danso is absolute world class and by that I mean he’s one of the very best CBs in the world right now. So are their right back Posch and their left back Mwene. Their sweeper Seiwald is an absolute monster and if you watch him closely, if you watched him against Kanté, there wasn’t much between them. Baumgartner and Sabitzer have also grown to be world class CAMs and I’m not exaggerating. Laimer is only getting better as well. Sure, the system is really effective but they also have a lot of individual quality, which lots of people overlook.

Ralf Rangnick is Swabian from the Stuttgart area, just like Jürgen Klopp. They are both from a. region in SW Germany, which is belittled very often.

@The Atletic Fc Podcast thx Mark Carey thx Ayo Akinwolere thx Seb Stafford-Bloor my name is steve 42 from vienna austria thx for the perfect review from austria team, on point and completly true in anyways

I absolutely love it that Utd fans thought he was absolutely rubbish when it just proves that player power still rules there. If those players had actually believed he was a capable manager and not downed tools under his management they probably would be a lot better today than they are

There are five reasons why Arnautovic works in this national team, even though he didn't come through the Red Bull academy. 1) Marko was never the most diligent in defensive work (that would have been a waste in any of his club teams) or the player with the highest top speed. But especially in the position of the hanging left forward, he has excelled with his technique, agility, and the outside of his right foot, as he did at Twente Enschede. Here, he has options when he needs to hold the ball with defenders on his back to then suddenly accelerate the game. Don't forget that Marko was only forced to become a center-forward during his time at West Ham. What I'm saying is: Marko was never the most hardworking or the tireless runner because it was never demanded of him - but he was always a player who could act extremely quickly over short distances of 5-15 meters, as he reacts very quickly in the game and has lightning-fast reflexes. This brings me to point 2): Arnautovic can read a game extremely well. Both in terms of short-term hustle (here a pass with the heel, there letting the ball bounce off, or letting the pass go through as in the Poland game...) and in terms of the meta-level of the game (which spaces do we need to cover better, where does my team need me in this match). He is often the pace-setter of a team, because here, combined with his technique, game understanding, and confidence, he is extremely valuable - especially for a team like the Austrian national team. This leads me to 3): Marko is a difference-maker, as there are hardly any in Austria despite the individual other great players. He didn't go through any academy; he learned to play in the cages of Vienna and is, as we say, "a real Jugo." This is positively racist, and one can of course criticize that people think and formulate it this way. Ultimately, in this situation, it is a sign of respect. You don't just learn that; the man has a gift and has perfected it for decades. That's why so many in Austria love him - he expands our good system with these key moments that you wouldn't otherwise expect from us. Points 4 and 5 I'll keep short: Marko, despite often being denied this, is an absolute team player and is repeatedly captain for a reason. Additionally, he is a leader and motivator off the pitch as well. Sorry for the long text, but as you can see, I've been a big Arnautovic fan for a long time and, for the first time in over 30 years, a happy fan of our national team. Go Austria!!

Rangnik and Ten Hag are excellent examples of what happens when the players actually listen to the coach at Ajax and Austria or don’t listen like at Manchester United

What I like most about Rangnick is that he stayed with the Austrian team when he had a chance to train Bayern munich-

As an Austrian, I can attest that RR is an exceptional trainer who refuses to accept mediocrity. As a German, he commands great respect in Austria, which is rare. His personality, intelligence, political attitude, education, honesty, humor, and warmth matter more than success in Austria today.

As an Austrian i have to say: spot on guys!

Rangnick gave Arnautovic an ultimatum and told him that he doesn't need any egos in this team. Either he fits in or he's out, basically.

This goes on to say man utd was a problem at the structural level and playing staff level he is a great coach and has always been that

Saw Mark Carey and Seb, then recalled the old tifo irl podcasts. Miss them, hope they return someday.

They should get him in as United manager id say he'd do a good job

Ragnick is Master Class!

Only the English media are that daft and foolish to run him out of town.

fantastic podcast, thank you

I'll say it again. The problem at united is not the manager. It's the infrastructure and the players. This club will drag everybody who comes in down

The art of coaching is to integrate the players you have into a team. Rangnick three times lead a team from 3rd to first league.

He embarrassed the incompetent United board and management so they sacked him Given the opportunity he would have revolutionized the whole unite structure

Very good discussion. Since Austrian and to a lesser extend German teams can not rely on buying of the best players for ridiculous amounts of money they have to develop players and working systems. For a reason a respectable number of German and Austrian coaches have influenced modern football tactics dramatically. The Bundesliga and the RB System in Austria is tactically probably miles ahead of the English premier league with the exception of Quatar City with a great coach and billions to spend and LFC with a genius coach out of the Gross-Franke-Rangnick school. This shows in the EC were teams with a lot of Bundesliga Players like Austria and Switzerland excell tactically. These are working systems based on Gegenpressing, defensive stability, tight lines and vertical dynamism. For some reasons England doesn't have a modern tactical DNA and therefor relies on defensive stability and no clue up front. But don't count them out, teams like Greece 2004 and Portugal2016 and Italy 2021 have won the competition on these attributes.

Last euros we did a good job, only losing to italy in overtime and putting up a good fight, however everything seemed a bit desperate offensily. I recall Foda putting Alaba on Nr 10 which didnt work well. Under rangnick the offense seems more effortless

Im Austrian...sorry for asking.. How do you spell out Ayo Akinwolere? 🤷‍♂ Good Job...makes me proud...like everthing makes me joy now! Good times.

Pat 55y from Vienna! TY! 🙏

They play well, while missing 2 of their top players- alaba and schlager.

If Man utd kept and backed him all their struggles would have be gone by now.

Muggy utd fanbase villainised this guy because he recognised straight away that rashford is not at the level in terms of ability and workrate.

It’s almost like people based a whole national team’s chances on their head coach’s at a previous club that is completely dysfunctional and are shocked when it doesn’t turn out like Man U

The main reason he stayed, and will stay, at austria is influence. He was never gonna take the bayern job anyway, but looking like he might promted austria to offer him more influence in other areas like coaching education and youth development

Austria team is such a joy to watch, gegenpressing at international football 😎 They play like a beast although they lack Quality players especially the back line could be much better. Also Ukraine played really well excluding the up front players who wasted alot of goal scoring chances. 😕 it's the bigger teams that's playing such bad football especially The England squad is such a bore side.😴

Maybe I did not understand it correctly (no native speaker since I am Austrian), but the decision of who gets to be the next coach is not political in a classic way. Our politicians do not care enough about sport to really get involved in these things. It's more political in a way that sports executives and former players, which pundit now, or are just legends of the game that always run their mouth when this discussion is on. And this so called "Freunderlwirtschaft" which means friendship-economy (old friends or clubmates speak up for a guy no matter if he is qualified for the job or not, kept us from developing since decades. But the manager in our FA Peter Schöttel, did a real good job to hire Rangnick. Even when it was more a coincidence than planned. Sometimes a little luck is all you need and great things can happen.

Respect for masterclass against England

imagine austria winning the euros against portugal!

RR vs JN final Professor vs Student

Austria can hold their own against every nation. However, after the turkey game we wont be favourites either

Bravo Burschen🚀

I had a low opinion of Rangnick after the stint at United, but Austria look great. It kind of makes me wonder whether maybe ten Hag is actually a decent manager and the team and organization is just *that* dysfunctional.

I'm fairly certain the athletic in all their glory also called this guy useless and clueless lol. The narrative change is wild to see. I remember I was listening to one of their 'podcasts' with some mouth-breathing United fan crying about Ole and saying he'd rather have him back because at least he played entertaining football and Rangnick is a know-nothing loser way above his head. I lost a lot of braincells in the five minutes I listened and any respect I had for the athletic as a footballing institution, their agenda stank to high heaven, they're an ABU channel and have been ever since. When eth wins he gets lucky, when he loses he's a clueless clown. Having that muppet the other week say they spurred United on to win the final by declaring ETH sacked was the reason. These are not serious people, they just sound serious. And yes I'm here for the hate, not their 'deep football knowledge'. Wouldn't care what they had to say one way or another, just love telling them how much they suck. ESAD the athletic, a bunch of click-baiters and ITK bluffers alongside a few footballing brains.

Look at what he can do with a squad that contains more than 2 players who are willing to run (one of whom 🇧🇷 can barely make a 10 yard pass)

Can somebody from Austria tell me whether Baumgartner is start the next match or not? I am rooting for them to at least reach the semis.♥️

The English media often lack knowledge of international football so most of yall weren't familiar with him and how he operates. You made him a scapegoat like he is a clown. This guy knows football. Its obvious since his days at Ulm which many of yall probably don't even know. He studied Lobanowski football back to his Dynamo days.. You should think more about international football. You wouldn't be that surprised then

Game I'd like to see in the Euros is Austria vs Germany.. proper WWII classic. The international fixture I'd really like to see rn Uruguay vs Austria. Argentina vs Austria would be a close second.

I support Manchester United and I was already aware of Ralf. I wanted him to stay and do well but I knew that with my club where the owners let the players take the piss and get away with murder, and the media such Jason Cundy and Jamie O'Hara at Talksport that he stood no chance. I thought about all of this when Ralf first got there. Has anyone ever worked where a spoilt brat is a family member of a company owner or something similar to this. Their direct boss cannot do what they want they want or punnish them and the boss gets walked over, and the lives of colleagues who are not flavoured by the spoilt brat are like a living hell at work.

I imagine that ManU fans would quickly dismiss their analysis. On the other hand non-ManU fans can simply enjoy Rangnick's work.

What, no Michael Cox on this pod?

It would be awesome if they won the whole thing, or at least made it to the final. Then the English press might stfu, though i doubt it Greetings from a Swedish United supporter.

didnt know any of those ronaldo stories, now i feel bad that they gona get kicked out by france, would have loved to meet them in the final :P

Jason Cundy and Jamie O'Hara know/knew best though lol

PL ist so überbewertet , nur das meiste TV Geld bringt keinen besseren Fussball ! Der Trainer Safegate versteht das Team nur in seiner begrenzten Sichtungsweise , weil er Angst hat zu verlieren . Er hat keine Eier , vielleicht sollte er sich Gedanken machen wie es ist mit einem Ferrari nur 30 kmh zu fahren ! Sein Auto ist zu schnell für ihn ! Er sollte mit einem Moped fahren 🧐 Österreich wird auch England Eleminieren bei diesem Turnier wenn England nicht erwacht ! Ich glaube England spielt keine Rolle für höhere Aufgaben mit diesem Trainer !

The problem is that Austria will have to play the Netherlands again after Turkey. In my opinion this is utter bad Organisation. But good to see the Austrian team is now the best thing since sliced bread … feels like they are on skis 😂

I guess everyone on that side of the bracket is a contender. But at the other side of the bracket they would not be. Their opponents in the group phase got lots of big open opportunities, but they just did not convert. Even Mbappe was completely not sharp, missed an unbelievable open one on one with the goalkeeper. Before his nose broke.

i think its incredibly pointless to compare statts between teams that played lets say scotland and hungary and teams that played france and the netherlands....context matters.

What if they listened in Manchester?

Nah, the English media told me he didn't know what he was doing. This is fake news.

It’s astonishing that Man Utd preferred to pay £50m for Mason Mount, when they could have acquired their loanee Sarbitzer - who had played well for them - for half that sum. Never has the chant “you don’t know what you’re doing” being more appropriate than applying it to Man Utd over the last 10 days. Shambolic incompetence. 😤

Austrian players aren't bad. I haven't watched Pentz before, he seems good. Wimmer can play better than he is right now. Sabitzer had a lot of personal problems in the last months, but he played in the UCL final, and made it into the Team of the season. Konrad Laimer is a machine. Any coach can make it in the top 16 of Europe with a team like that. If they make it to the semis, then I would say good job Rangnick. For now, they haven't done something special yet.

All the renegade germans will do well in this tournament

Man utd should have kept rangnick

All this hype just for a QF exit.

Rangnick is a proper manager Not southgate

If he was good for Austria but rubbish at Man United, does that mean it was Man U that was shite?

Lost all credibility the moment you described Bielsa’s Leeds as harem scarem running without purpose or forethought. What a shallow, cheap comparison.

Maybe the glazers should have listened to Ralf. Open heart surgery 🤷🏽

it annoys me when these so called pundits get the basics incorrect..Why is the mu;ppet in the middle starting off the debate by saying Austria have been impressive with 2 wins and a draw when they lost against France ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

united is a toxic club

The level of mutual respect and admiration among us is a beautiful thing to witness, creating a safe space for open and honest conversation.🔥