Speaking to Sky Sports at United base in Carrington shortly after a press conference where the thorny issues of Louis van Gaal’s apparent vendetta against United and Nemanja Matic’s comments about the camp’s morale seemed to be on the agenda, the 63rd more comfortable discussing how best to raise his adopted club back into the silverware claim.
It has been less than five months since he took the top spot at Old Trafford and if the league had started that day, United would have finished fourth. It will be considered a relative success if they take this position on the last day of the season, a truth that reveals the scale of the task that the next coach will have – and Rangnick in his next role – to bridge the gap in the Premier League Summit .
Saturday 2 April 17:00 Start 17:30
“Obviously something needs to change, something needs to be rebuilt in the summer,” he told Sky Sports. “The team could do with some more talented, hungry players who really want to develop their own careers.
“I do not think it should be so much for signing big names. I would not mind big names! But for me it is important to be competitive, hungry, to see a move to a club – and I always believed that – not just as a big contract, a big club, but the next logical step in his career.
“If that happens, then you have a completely different level of motivation, ambition, inspiration to play for any team. That should be the main goal for the summer transfer window.”
Of course, if it was that simple, why wouldn’t every club do it? Rangnick’s response involves patience and time, two goods that football desperately needs but often hates to concede. A good manager also helps. And one of the German’s oldest friends in the game is a shining example.
“Look at Liverpool,” he says. “When Jürgen Klopp came there five and a half years ago it was early in the season, but they still finished eighth in the Premier League with an average of around 1.6 points.
“They played in a European final but lost it, and from that summer transfer window onwards, if you compare the line-up from that final to now, there are still some players there, Henderson and Firmino for example, but they added top transfers almost in each transfer window Players for whom this move would be the next step – Virgil van Dyke, Santo Mane, Mo Salah.
Image: Although they never worked together, Ralph Rangnick and Jürgen Klopp have known each other since 1997
“It shows that it is possible, but you have to have both the quality and the recruitment process and the players plus the best possible coach.”
The identity of this next coach was – like everything around United – a topic of heated and prolonged discussion outside the club.
In it, he has spoken to Erik ten Hag this week, although Rangnick was separated from internal discussions about his successor. “We did not have time to talk about what would happen to new players or a new coach,” he said when asked if his advisory role was closer to being defined.
United will be hoping the coach’s appointment will bring him back to the Premier League title, but in the meantime Rangnik has laid the groundwork for his move to the top floor at the end of the season.
Within days of his appointment in December, he spotted a defensive leak as his first hole to fill, and has since begun to improve his balance so that United can maintain enough firepower to reach the Champions League next season.
This is a challenge that is still very much in progress – and he will try again when his team tries to reduce the difference to fourth place against Leicester, live in the Sky Sports Premier League on Saturday afternoon from 17:00.
He says: “After Christmas we focused on making sure the team had plenty of chances, but since then we have had games like the FA Cup game against Middlesbrough, the home game against Watford and a few other games where we did not score enough goals. from the opportunities we created.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Manchester United manager Ralph Rangnick is confident that the club’s fans will support Harry Maguire at Old Trafford, after they disapproved of him in the international mission with England.
“That’s why we lost too many points, eight draws in total in the league and too many moments where we were 1-0 or even 2-0 – at Aston Villa – and then we ended up in a draw.”
Fred can play a surprising role in improving United’s attacking performance thanks to the new role given to him by Rangnik, who commissioned him to become a more creative figure in the United midfield.
The coach considers him one of the most underrated players at Old Trafford and seems to be wondering why the foresight of his game has often been blocked since he moved to Manchester.
“For me he is an extremely valuable player, a team player in the true sense, a player who makes every effort and would give his last drop of blood for the team.
“He is also a player who can score and he has these amazing elements in his game, small moves, and he can also be a technical player.
To reduce him to number six, a defensive midfielder does not score enough. He can do much more than defend himself. Rangnik for Fred’s resurgence
“This combination makes him extremely valuable, and reducing him to just number six, a defensive midfielder, does not score him well enough. He can do a lot more than defend.”
One thing Rangnick will not be able to fix before the summer is the spotlight surrounding himself, his players and the club. United are steeped in history and are known around the world, and that will not change – nor would it want to.
But he comes with his own difficulties, with Matic admitting that the atmosphere in the dressing room “is not fantastic” the last in a long series of murmurs.
These “leaks,” if they are genuine, are certainly a disappointment to Rangnick, who has never faced a media storm at this level before. But four months later, it’s something he feels he’s holding on to, and partly blaming the bloated team he inherited when he first arrived at Old Trafford.
“I think every manager would like these things not to exist, but you need to know what information is true and what is not,” he says. “I know the atmosphere in the locker rooms between the players is good.
“Obviously, losing a game like this to Atletico is not good. But the same will be true for (Sweden) Anthony Elanga and Victor Lindelof after the defeat by Poland – this is football.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
FREE ATTENTION: Snapshots from Manchester United’s victory over Tottenham in the Premier League.
“By Christmas, the size of the team was very large and when you can only put three in each game, then you have some players who have almost no chance of getting playing time. Of course they will not feel important to the team, and that is the most frustrating thing that can happen.
“At times, the players or maybe even the people around them will post something in the media. This is normal, it’s not something unique for a club like Manchester United.
“But if you look at the top teams in Europe, England and abroad, they have 20 away players at about the same level who could easily wait to play. If you are still playing in four tournaments towards the end of a season, you need these 18, 20 players, two for each position, and you can rotate, plan in advance for the next three or four games “.
So there is Rangnick’s formula – the right coach, the right recruitment, the right team size. Could the glory days return to Old Trafford sooner than we think?
It is clear from the sincerity of our 20-minute interview that when he says he can, he really means it. “Everything has to go hand in hand,” he explains. “It does not make sense if things are not coordinated with each other. If that happens, why take so long?”
Watch Man Utd vs. Leicester live in the Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm on Saturday. start 5.30 p.m.
