Cristiano Ronaldo’s former Man Utd coach now tearing it up in MLS thanks to secret weapon tactic

SET PIECES have taken over the Premier League again this season – and now they are breaking America thanks to a Welshman.

And set pieces have been their secret weapon. No team have scored more than Minnesota’s 22 this season – one of the best records worldwide for the same period.

Eric Ramsay has led Minnesota United to the MLS play-offs in back-to-back seasonsCredit: Reuters

Eric Ramsay, the former and coach, has one of the smallest budgets in Major League Soccer but is bending it to his will with Minnesota United.

Ramsay’s side have downed and Inter Miami this season, a 4-1 demolition of side, and reached the Play-Off semi-finals this month.

Ramsay, who was a set piece coach at Old Trafford and worked with and Casemiro, told SunSport: “This year we’ve got an insane record and it is by design, I would say maybe a step backwards.

“Coming from where it came from at Man United over those three years you’ve got a sense of the league in England moving that way.

“It would almost be insane if it wasn’t something that was being turned over with a real fine tooth comb by every single coaching staff in the Premier League.

“When I looked at MLS from afar you could tell that the league wasn’t as developed in that sense.

“So you could see that it would be an advantage if you could almost pick that low hanging fruit.

“This is a league that more than most I would say requires pragmatism, flexibility, adaptability because of all the things you face.

“You’ve got the travel, you’ve got the huge swings in climate that came to the fore in the Club World Cup and so many people at home are very conscious of how difficult a league is to navigate or certainly how difficult a country is to navigate.

“When I look back at our season, one thing that we’ve done incredibly well is just the level of consistency.”

Ramsay worked under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag at UnitedCredit: Getty Ramsay could be set for a move back to English football having turned down Championship jobs in the pastCredit: Getty

Ramsay, 34, is the youngest British manager to earn the Uefa Pro Licence and is now attracting clubs across the Championship, having turned many down before.

The Welshman, who speaks Spanish and French as well as only speaking Welsh at home with his young family, felt America would be a better place to being his managerial career.

There were chances in the Championship before heading Stateside, but none offered the security of MLS and a chance to learn.

But now, having had almost two seasons in America, it seems English football is starting to look more tempting to Ramsay.

He said: “I do feel MLS has been perfect for me in that sense.

“I’ve always felt here that I’ve had a real sense of stability and project and there wasn’t any prospect of me finding myself in really sticky territory just around the corner.

“I’ve been able to develop with that in mind and I think when you consider what MLS gives you in terms of it’s the most multinational league in the world. We’ve got the most multinational dressing room in MLS.

You could see that it would be an advantage if you could almost pick that low hanging fruit.

Eric Ramsay

“It’s been a phenomenal, it feels like a lot longer but 18-20 months to really develop my skill set and cut my teeth.

“With that in mind I feel like I’ve taken what I wanted from it

“I would caveat by saying I’m not desperately looking at next step or tracking every possible job that might come up elsewhere.”

He added: “This has been everything I’ve wanted it to be in the sense that it has really stretched me as a coach in ways I probably wouldn’t have imagined.

“It’s difficult almost to appreciate some of the challenges you face without actually having a stint over here.

“Being very pragmatic and very flexible and being very solutions focused, that’s sort of something that I will now pride myself on going forward.

“As you’ve seen in the Premier League this year it’s managers doing exactly that and maybe the fact that the game has moved away a little bit from the stereotype of what is progressive, what is forward thinking from the perspective of coaching will come as a relief to some coaches.

“It’s almost giving them more of a platform to look at the group, look at the tools and really build it around the strength of the players.

“That’s probably where I’ve seen myself sat on that spectrum of trying to push pragmatism versus idealism.”