Ralf Rangnick to Manchester United: An FPL perspective

Fantasy Premier League impact

As previously stated, expect it to take 3-5 weeks to be able to see Rangnick’s distinct style to be imprinted on the team and the hectic festive schedule is possibly the worst time for this with less time on the training ground and games coming thick and fast. We would expect to see Rangnick make a positive impact on the United attack.

Pressing higher, clear patterns of play and vertical build-up suggest that we should see this United team score more goals than under the previous sets of management. “Attack is the best form of defense” might be a football cliche but it applies in how Rangnick’s sides can defend better.

However, due to some of the defensive players possibly not being good fits for this style of play as well as the lack of an elite defensive midfielder, I’m less confident about their defensive prospects improving than I am for their attack. In theory, we would expect to see more clean sheets.

Based on previous history and the Manchester United squad, I expect that United will line up in a 4-3-3 or some variation of similar personnel (4-2-2-2) with Bruno and Van de Beek on either side of a defensive midfielder and Rashford, Ronaldo and Sancho up top.

I would expect Bruno to be the most advanced of the central midfielders and actively press high up the pitch. In the front 3, despite not being an energetic presser compared to Cavani, I expect Ronaldo to start striker more often with Rangnick looking for a way to bypass his low activity in pressing structure to accommodate his intelligent movement off the ball and lethal finishing ability.