Is Red Bull football overrated?

The Red Bull company is known the world over for their football network, playing a high-octane style and developing players. But is it overrated? Jon Mackenzie analyses the Red Bull identity, and whether it is working?

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#RedBull

[yawfrimpong]

Harsh to say 'Red Bull Ghana' was 'a failed experiment'. It was a lower-tier club that doubled as an academy. They produced quite a few top talents, before an arguably bigger club/academy in Ghana, then owned by Feyenoord, acquired it, expanding and rebranding as the West African Football Academy (WAFA).

[geovani]

RB first made Red Bull Brasil and until 2019, they were the “main” RB club here in brasil, but because they werent making fast develpment to reach the first division, they just bought Bragantino, a club who was at the time in the second division, so now Red Bull Brasil is the Reserve team and Red Bull Bragantino is in the first division and is the Main team

[deejlynzle]

1. being able to advertise freely in top leagues around the world should have been mentioned as a prime motivator
2. In many ways it's more like vertical integration than economies of scale as they are building clubs to source the local talent, like if Starbucks bought and ran coffee plantations instead of buying on the wholesale market
3. Are any other clubs or owners following a similar model with success? Don't the city group have the MLS team and Melbourne?

[kingms]

Never knew Jon invented economies of scale 😯

[themindofben]

jon wears nice shirts and is good at his job

[brn]

enjoyed this episode, could you do a similar episode but with "Cryuffian" football managers. I am also unfamiliar with other footballing identities so it'd be nice to learn more about them

[mr.sushi]

i have far less of an issue with this model compared to how man city and psg act. they give a lot of players opportunities from ares that don't get a lot of hype, like Africa, east Europe, and specifically north America. also north American managers.

[bluecheese]

John McKenzie is smashing it. His Leeds knowledge is long overdue on this chanel

[brendanobrien]

I Really like Red Bull football, but each team needs to adapt to fit and succeed in their own league. Specialization and roles are more important at the higher level.

[mortezz]

in the family tree you could also put Stuttgart coach Pellegrino Matarazzo under Julian Nagelsmann as he was his assistant coach at Hoffenheim

[FootballDrawn]

I remember making a video on why RB Leipzig are hated, and I gotta say, I found a new perspective on their methods. It's still quite unsettling on how they play with loopholes in Germany, but universally they're quite recognizable in terms of a unified brand of football. Brilliant video, as always ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽

[Sly_]

I don't think RB is overrated. However even with RB and the current spending limitations in BL, the financial gap between Leipzig and Bayern is simply to large to overcome. Bayern's wage bill sits at 380M Euro annually, while RB at half of that around 160M Euro. No matter how good you work, you can't keep your best players/managers if the direct rival in your league is financially so far ahead of you.

[henrygale]

Jon has my full support as new tifo member after seeing him in the famous green and white hoops 💚

[StefanBienkowski]

From a German football perspective, there's no doubt that RB Leipzig trampled all over the traditions that are held in such high regard in the Bundesliga and below, but from a sporting point of view they have been something of a breath of fresh air. Unlike Dortmund, they don't seem to rely on a quick turnover of star players and unlike many of the country's former giants, they are willing to think outside the box when it comes to appointing coaches and signign players. While most German football fans may not like it, Leipzig (or Red Bull) may be the only club capable of mounting a substainable challenge to Bayern's dominance.

[genericusername]

Aggressive Pressing and Fast-break football works excellently against top teams (see ETH's Utd v Liverpool recently). Notably, it's the reason OGS' Utd were able to consistently contest (and even beat) in games City and Liverpool in the 19/20 and 20/21 seasons. Similarly, it allows Leipzig to consistently pull upset results in the Bundesliga and European competition (although they rarely make it out of the group stages of the UCL). However, as we've consistently seen with Dortmund (the last 2 years under Klopp), Liverpool (the first year under Klopp, before he evolved his football), OGS' Utd and Leipzig, this rigid 'tactical identity' consistently results in attacking impotence when faced with even rudimentary low-block siege defenses, and, especially in the epl, allows the exploitation of empty space with even basic switches of play (I remember West Ham beating OGS' Utd this way consistently with Bowen's runs).

[Machinationstudio]

Contrasting this with the earlier video about Carlo Ancelotti.

This is like the corporate solution to genius. Corporations dislike genius employees because their genius cannot be easily replicated and they may hold the corporation hostage in negotiations. The corporate solution are data analytics, templates, machine learning, kpi, incentive structures, etc. to replicate the result of genius collectively with less geniusy employees. It’s great until their competitors have geniuses.

Isn’t any tactical identity doomed to failure after X years?

[thisistheway]

1:15 Jon is good at making videos which I like to call “interesting”

[ruycosio]

Miss Alex a bunch, and was afraid of things wouldn't be the same.
But must say, Tifo's quality hasn't dropped one bit.
Well done john. Great analysis.

[greenhandskelly]

I really like Jon's presentation style it's very clear and concise in making his points 👌

[urso_live]

Lots of people in the comments have clearly not watched the video. He is not saying Leipzig or the player development model are bad, it's a comment on the overall gegenpressing style and how it's become outdated