Breaking news : Tuchel and Klopp finally breaks silent about the appointment of Rangnick from Lokomotiv Moscow.

 Manchester United want to get closer to 

Chelsea and Liverpool - so they are hiring 

the manager who inspired the world-class 

coaches of those Premier League clubs.

Ralph Rangnick and the Red Devils have 

reached an agreement for the German to 

become the club's interim boss until the 

end of this season after Ole Gunnar 

Solskjaer's sacking last week.

The 63-year-old, who also has a two-year 

deal to become a consultant at Old Trafford 

when his contract ends in May 2022, is known

 as the 'Godfather of the Gegenpress' 

and has mentored some of Europe's 

top managers.

Thomas Tuchel of Chelsea, Bayern Munich's 

Julian Nagelsmann and Jurgen Klopp of 

Liverpool have all named Rangnick 

as a vital influence - and there are comparisons

 between the latter and Rangnick's style

 of play.

That is according to the soon-to-be United

 manager himself, who even used the same 

'rock and roll' and 'heavy metal' terminology 

that Klopp has been using ever since his 

Borussia Dortmund days.

In an interview with the Coaches Voice in 

September of this year, Rangnick told 

up-and-coming coaches: 'Our idea is clear: it's

 very, very similar to my almost-coaching 

friend Jurgen Klopp.

'Our football is very heavy metal, rock and 

roll and it's not slow balls. It's not square 

passes, back passes. Just having the 

ball ourselves doesn't make sense.'

With the ball, Rangnick's teams are fast and

 aggressive with a lot of forward passing, 

but without it they are quick to get the 

ball back and relentless in their pressing 

game.

In the same interview, he said: 'Supposed 

myself, Julian Nagelsmann, myself, Ralph 

Hasenhuttl had informed our players at 12 

o'clock at midnight: "We will meet in our 

training ground in one hour's time. We'd 

have a meeting in the locker room and 

then we'd play 2x15 minutes of 11 against

 11."

'They would have played - in their sleep

 - high speed, counter pressing transitional 

football.'

There is also an important emphasis on 

set pieces. Ragnick made the observation that

 30 per cent of all goals come from deal ball 

situations, so expect a great deal of focus 

in this area at Old Trafford between now 

and the end of the season.

United's fringe players will also feel like 

they have a second chance to show their 

worth at Old Trafford, with no stone left unturned

 with regards to player improvement under 

the Rangnick regime.

'We see it like a jigsaw with 500 pieces,' 

he told the Guardian in 2019 and our role 

is to ensure that we have each piece available

 to help every player improve. We help every

 individual in the whole club develop and 

flourish.'

United stars should expect late night 

phone calls, as Rangnick keeps producing 

ideas for players when those he coaches 

look to settle into bed - and deciding not 

to run in training is never an option under

 the German.

Rangnick's list of mentees is very impressive

 but his own influences include ones from

 England. Sportsmail revealed this week 

that the German has long held a desire 

to manage in the Premier League and there

 is a reason why.

His love for football was accelerated 

during a university year abroad placement

 at Sussex University, in the middle of his 

time studying English and PE in Stuttgart.

Rangnick became engrained in English 

culture, featuring nearly a dozen times for 

non-league club Southwick FC, while he 

also admired the humour of the fans at 

Brighton's 4-1 defeat to Liverpool at the 

Goldstone Ground.

'The most important thing for me was the 

amount of coaching we did on the pitch,'

 he told the Guardian when asked about 

his time at Southwick. 'We always spurred

 each other on, coaching among ourselves

 or motivating each other. That was inspirational

 for me.'

But his first experiences of coaching 

came in his earlier years. At the age of 

six, he told ten-year-olds how to play 

and improve, while he improved the 

Stuttgart football training regimes - despite 

being just a student there.

In 1983, the German then made his first 

ventures into senior coaching at just 25 

years old - a very similar move to current 

Bayern manager Naglesmann who made 

his dugout debut at 28, though Rangnick 

was, as always, ahead of the curve.

His hands-on approach was clear to see 

in his first role at hometown FC Viktoria 

Backnang, where he banned smoking from 

two hours before kick-off, introduced warm 

downs and took away matchday beers when

 he was not impressed.

He was just days into his forties when 

he started lecturing German audiences about

 the game, with well-established programme 

'Das Aktuelle Sportstudio' listening with open

 ears in what would be accurate predictions

 about the future.

It was 1997 - nearly a quarter of a century

 ago - when terms like zonal marking and 

organised pressing - were appearing from

 his mouth. English football has only started

 listening when the likes of Klopp and Pep 

Guardiola took their style of play to 

England's top-flight.

And these philosophies have propped up 

a career that has been very successful.

Just before his interview on German TV,

 he had taken minnows Ulm into the country's

 second division. Rangnick then took 

relegation-threatened Stuttgart from

 around the drop zone to eighth-place in 

the space of a single Bundesliga season.

He then got promotion to the German top-

flight with Hannover 96 and finished as 

Bundesliga runners-up with Schalke in 

his next job, winning the German Cup in 

that same stint.

Rangnick was crucial to the Hoffenheim 

we know today, taking the club into the 

German second division for the first time 

in their history, while he also took the 

then-minnow to two German Cup quarter

-finals.

The 63-year-old then set the tone for the

 likes of Nagelsmann and Hasenhuttl to 

lead RB Leipzig by taking short-term stints 

before the pair took over.

And his coaching abilities are well-known 

to those in the English game. Rangnick 

got to the final two to take over as England

 boss before Sam Allardyce took the job 

for one game, while he has also been close

 to getting the Chelsea and the Everton job.

Rangnick also has a view for the bigger 

picture, having taken director of football 

roles at Leipzig and Lokomotiv Moscow - 

who he is leaving for the Manchester United

 post.

Players such as Luiz Gustavo and 

Demba Ba were turned from unknown 

figurines to top-flight talent, while his director 

of football roles for Red Bull's clubs saw him 

take on cases such as Sadio Mane and 

Timo Werner.

United chiefs Ed Woodward and John 

Murtough know Rangnick's qualities first-hand, 

having dealt with Rangnick before.

Football director Murtough visited Rangnick's

 Lepizig to look at the German club's facilities 

in an eight-hour meeting between the sport

 supremos.

Tasked with looking at the overall quality

 of the squad, as well as knowledge 

of how the transfer window operates, is a 

key quality which means he is a good

 long-term option even though he will take 

the team for six months and is 63.