The man said he needed to get into their hearts, brains, and blood.
The footballing epiphany of a man named Ralf Rangnick almost 40 years ago still underpins his style of play and he still wants to innovate.
The story of how he became a Manchester United's interim boss is a result of a match he played in as a player for Viktoria Backnang.
The number of opposition players was stopped and counted a few minutes into the game because of the suffocating way the team pressed the ball.
The encounter shaping the high-intensity football the 'Godfather of Gegenpressing' has become renowned for was the one that chanced upon a genius.
The principles the German learned from observing the sides of AC Milan and Lobanovsky are already being implemented at United's training ground. The 63-year-old is known for his reputation and unique approach.
People who have worked with Rangnick describe him as a mastermind. A man who drives players to their best but can also be exhausting and push them to their limits.
The interim boss said last week that the players have to buy in. I need to get to their core. The first steps have been taken.
He is said to be a person who challenges the status quo and implements his own structure as soon as possible. He can be impatient and ruthless. He knows how to create a high-performing environment. One source said that he tries to convince stars of his methods, even though he is unlikely to dictate to them how to eat and sleep.
His most notable trophy success, one German Cup with Schalke a decade ago, may seem insignificant, but his real craft comes in developing his surroundings. Since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure, the club has struggled for a clear sense of direction.
It is a challenge that is familiar for Rangnick, but the circumstances are different than they have been before.
The methods that Rangnick has used for a long time include three remarkable changes. At Hoffenheim and Ulm, he took lower-league clubs and formed them into teams.
When he arrived in 1997, Ulm were in the third tier. They were going to get a place in the German top flight for the first time in their history when he left in 1999.
He took over at Hoffenheim in 2006 and achieved two promotions in a row, establishing a structure that has seen the club make the group stages in the last two years.
Alexander Rosen, the football director of Hoffenheim, says that the architect of the club is Ralf Rangnick.
He is able to generate short-term success, but he is also someone who plans for the long term.
There have been roles where he missed out on significant achievement, like at Schalke, where he enjoyed mixed success. In the first year of his time in Gelsenkirchen, he was beaten to the league title by a different team. They reached the semi-finals of the European competition, but lost to Manchester United 6-1.
His best work may have been at RB Leipzig.
Ragnick was the club's director of football.
Red Bull Salzburg andRB Leipzig are two European sides owned by Red Bull. At Hoffenheim, he had an opportunity to exert maximum influence, backed by the resources to achieve his vision.
Alexander Zorniger was the man chosen to take charge of the project after a four-hour chat with Rangnick. Soon, 7am phone calls would become the norm.
Zorniger tells the BBC that Ralf hates wasting time. "If someone is thinking right now in Manchester United, it will take three or four years and then you will see the first influence, no chance." He will replace people if they aren't doing what he expects.
He is the most improved professional I have ever met. He is checking everything every day to see if it is still up to date. Do we need to improve?
"He always says that football is a picture with 100 puzzle pieces and we should be able to provide all the 100 pieces to the players to become better players." He is checking hand-eye coordination, nutrition, mental preparation, physical needs, and more.
When Rangnick arrived, the recently formed RB Leipzig were still trying to get out of the fourth-tier RegionalligaNord. They were competing in the league within four years.
The club's rise to second place in the second division in the 2015-16 season was achieved thanks to Zorniger who guided the club to successive promotions.
Rangnick is the architect. "He is a great man, he did all of this, and I am very proud of him."
Everything changed when he arrived at Leipzig. He made the club faster. Everything is under the pressure of his philosophy since this day.
When he was Hoffenheim manager, he was pictured.
The players have eight seconds to win the ball back and 10 seconds to score a goal, if they use the innovative idea of a clock in training. Sleep experts were brought in, as was a Soccerbot machine that could help players improve their cognitive ability.
The players would have to arrive 90 minutes before training to undergo tests that would allow staff to know how hard they should work and how long they should work out.
Chinedu Obasi, a former Hoffenheim player, told the World Service that Raf is a psychologist. He knows how to get the best out of his players and he expects them to do it.
Hoffenheim was the first place where Rangnick began to look for younger players. They were better suited to his high-energy football as they would recover more quickly, and have empty hard drives that are hard to coach out.
Hoffenheim's Rosen says that Ralf wants to break down old ideas to unleash new energy in a club.
He has a good eye for scouting. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to identify, acquire and nurture young talent.
Red Bull's global portfolio of clubs included New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Brasil. There was a policy of only signing players under the age of 23 from a database that has developed to include more than 400,000 footballers, ranked by their personality characteristics.
Oliver Mintzlaff, chief executive of the company, says that "Rangnick is an absolute football expert and a gifted club builder." We have a lot to thank him for. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to achieve our goals.
In the summer of 2020, when Rangnick resigned from Red Bull, they were firmly established among Germany's elite. They lost to Paris St-Germain and finished third in the Bundesliga, but that was caused by Covid.
He has talked about success with three Cs - concept, competence and capital. At Hoffenheim and Red Bull's teams, he found money and a blank canvas to work with.
There are different circumstances at Old Manchester.
He has two wins and one draw from his first three matches.
Zorniger says that Ralf has the ability to change everything. He implemented a new coaching team, new players, a new medical department, and a new scouting team.
He doesn't have any of these possibilities in Manchester United. It can be difficult to open up and create new structures in old clubs.
He was the first manager to manage big players when he took over in 1999 and he was struggling because they didn't follow everything he thought might be a good idea. He knows where he can change things quickly and where it takes a little while.
At Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, Rangnick was able to get the process up and running quickly. His ideas could be implemented quickly after talking to the club owners.
Zorniger says that when something made sense, they did it. It wasn't like in a normal club, where the board would discuss it with the financial guys.
It was always the reason that Ralf didn't take over every club, he needs to find the perfect situation for his understanding of football, not discussing with seven former players whether something makes sense or not.
The picture was of Rangnick celebrating the promotion to the Bundesliga.
Change is already under way at Manchester United.
At the training ground, Rangnick often takes a hands-on approach first, before handing over to trusted staff, and has previously employed an army of specialists to cover every eventuality.
He has begun this process at United by appointing a former USA international and ex-New York Red Bulls coach as his assistant and a former colleague to the staff in a sports psychologist.
Kornetka has decided to stay at Lokomotiv Moscow and take over the role of sporting director from Rangnick. Kornetka was the first video analyst in German football and followed in the footsteps of his father.
There has been talk of another old friend, the man who would write the coaching manual for Rangnick, helping at Old Trafford.
Gross was always the man who delivered sessions to the coaches to educate them about the pair's philosophy and to update them on any new changes. The philosophy of the entire club was to be run through the entire club and the youth teams had to adopt the same style of play.
Zorniger believes that Manchester United are getting an innovator who has had the biggest influence on coaching and coaches in Germany in the past 20 years.
He says that you can learn from him every day.
I am pretty sure that if Ralf gets the time, he will check the club completely and turn it upside down.
There are many aspects of the game that you never heard of. You have to be stupid to not listen to what he is saying.
