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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Daniel Murphy

David Alaba defends 'world class' former Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick

David Alaba has labelled Ralf Rangnick 'world classs' and moved to defend the work he did during his time at Manchester United.

Rangnick was appointed as United's interim manager in December last year after the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskaer but wasn't able to turn the ship around. If anything, United got worse under his stewardship, finishing the campaign with their lowest ever Premier League points tally and outside of the Champions League places.

Despite the poor performances on the pitch, the German still earned plaudits off it for his straight-talking about the club's decline and it boded well for the consultancy role he was set to take following the conclusion of the season. However, even that began to unravel when Rangnick was appointed as the new Austria manager alongside working with United before the club announced that he would be stepping away from his role at Old Trafford altogether.

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Austria got off to a winning start under Rangnick as they upset Croatia with a 3-0 win in their first Nations League game before slipping to a narrow 2-1 loss to Denmark on Monday. And Alaba has claimed that a lack of time hindered Rangnick at United.

“He has been really good,” David Alaba told The Athletic. "You can see we have a really good plan and you can see it works for us on the pitch. He doesn’t want us to let the opponents breathe air. It is good for us.

“I have known Ralf since I was 18 years old and he is a world-class coach. What he did in the past is something special and now I am seeing it close up. He showed what he can do at Leipzig, Salzburg and Hoffenheim.

“He didn’t have a lot of time in Manchester. He has a really good plan and knows a lot about football.”

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