Betrachtet you only the results, it looks actually quite good for Ralf Rangnick. Of the 15 games since the German joined Manchester United as caretaker manager, the side have won eight, drawn five and lost only twice. Ahead of Rangnick’s first game with United in early December, England’s years-staggering record champions were seventh in the table; now they are fourth in the Premier League and have a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League on their own, mainly because of the improved defense under Rangnick.
“It’s obvious that the team has evolved,” said Rangnick recently, as if he felt the need to justify his own commitment to the public. Because as solid as his record looks after almost three months in England, it is also true that United have rarely been completely convincing. Last weekend the team gave up a 2-0 lead at Leeds United by conceding goals in the 53rd and 54th minute of the game, but still won 4-2 in the end. United had won the previous home game against Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 on paper, but Brighton had been the dominant side at Old Trafford in the first half.
And Rangnicks United has not yet measured up to the other top clubs in the Premier League. The comparatively gentle program against at least nominally weaker opponents ends abruptly in March when it comes to Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool FC one after the other. Against this background, the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Atlético Madrid this Wednesday is also a kind of baptism of fire for Rangnick and the work he has done so far.
Big transfer deficit
Upon his arrival in England, Rangnick was hailed in the media as a tactical genius, the “Godfather of counterpressing”. In the meantime, however, the fairy dust has largely evaporated, and the expectations in the environment have become noticeably more sober since they were eliminated from the FA Cup against second division club FC Middlesbrough. It is the realization that even Rangnick – especially since he is only committed as an interim coach until the end of the season – cannot perform a football miracle after years of unimaginative and directionless squad planning.
In the words of the Guardian newspaper, Rangnick has found a collection of mostly mismatched players in south-west Manchester, who in turn are part of a club that has consistently failed to achieve its self-imposed goals for years despite a “colossal budget”. Ahead of the season, United spent around €140m on new players; In the past ten years, no club in Europe has accumulated a larger minus from player transfers than Manchester United: expenditures of around 1.5 billion euros have been offset by sales revenues of only around 470 million euros since 2012, according to research by the CIES Football Observatory .
The power struggle between Christiano Ronaldo and captain Harry Maguire is damaging the fabric of the team.
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Build: AP
No other additions came in the most recent winter transfer window; probably also because Rangnick is supposed to switch to an advisory role after the season, which is why he doesn’t want to be entrusted with building a new team. It is difficult, said Rangnick, to work with a team that he had no influence over: “These are not alibis or excuses, that’s just a fact.”
A report in the tabloid “Daily Mirror” recently triggered additional unrest, according to which there is said to be a power struggle within the team. According to this, the world star Cristiano Ronaldo, who returned to Manchester in the summer, is after the captain’s bracelet, which belongs to the central defender Harry Maguire, who has recently been criticized. Rangnick’s alleged instruction that 37-year-old Ronaldo should mentor the youngsters in the squad like Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford in their development has further weakened Maguire’s standing within the squad, according to an unspecified source.
spectacle at the right time
Rashford described the reports on the social network Twitter as fictitious. Ronaldo doesn’t make it easy for Rangnick in other ways either, despite his goals: The Portuguese is known to be not an easy character and, despite his advanced footballing age, seems dissatisfied whenever he is not used. He doesn’t help the atmosphere in the team. Fans and those around them debate whether Ronaldo helps or hurts United more because when he plays the whole attacking game often revolves around him.
The spectacle against Leeds, when United briefly lost control of the game and conceded two goals, came at just the right time. Manchester and Leeds share a mutual disdain, the rivalry between the two clubs goes back a long way. The atmosphere at the Elland Road stadium was correspondingly hostile and when Leeds made it 2-2 the atmosphere was so heated that, as a neutral observer, the United players would have been forgiven if they had been intimidated. But they got up again, held back as a collective – and scored the goals through Rangnick’s substitute Fred and Anthony Elanga in the middle of the second half to win the game 4-2.
“That was the best answer they could give to the articles from last week, according to which there should be problems in the dressing room,” Rangnick praised the character of his players that day: “You can only win a game like this today as a team .” Manchester United, wrote the Guardian, a group with “divisions and cliques”, showed cohesion and courage when it came down to it. In view of the difficult games in the coming weeks, they can use both now.
