Turning on Rangnick

Pronewbie

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I swear we have the god damn dumbest fans.

We didn't hire Rangnick because he was a first rate coach. We hired to him to make preparations for the first rate coach that wasn't available. I wanted Conte and I'm pissed the club didn't act on him but it's obvious they have other candidates in mind - Most likely Poch or ten Hag who were unavailable now. The priority this season isn't winning the Champions League, or getting top four - It's about the interim guy making things easier for the permanent manager who he'll be working with after this season. Any manager walking into this club would inherit a disjointed mess that has came about through years of horrible management from the top down.

Ralf Rangnick's strength has always been directing a club more than managing a team. He's been brought in to sign the right profile of player and piece together a squad that will work long term. I know our reactionary fans and media want instant results but that was never ever happening with this group of players. They have let down multiple managers and I have no doubt Ralf has already alienated some of them with his demands. Good - This season should be about rooting out those who aren't going to buy into the direction the club is going.

We've committed to Ralf. We can't bail on another manager months after doing so. I said when he signed that it might get worse before it got better. Overhauls are rarely pretty.
You are right to say that overhauls are rarely pretty. But when you want to enhance and improve the train service, for example, you don’t simply shut everything down for 6 months and give up on your SLAs/KPIs. Customers/Fans have every right to feel aggrieved when that happens and I still expect top 4 from this side.

If what you say is true, alienating a large group of staff so early on without any replacements in or lined up isn’t good management. In football, you have the luxury of doing so during the off-season to minimise disruption. In the meantime, it’s important to keep morale up.

It’s a tough juggling act and that’s where strong leadership and management is vital to mitigate and navigate around the pitfalls of an overhaul.

Rangnick has been appointed as Interim Manager so it’s fair to judge his short term record and play style, otherwise we should have just appointed him as a DOF or consultant instead.
 

bond19821982

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And there’s the crux of the matter
That's just a bandage then and exactly the problem we were having. Hope we take our time and understand what the issue is. Fix the root and not the branch.
 

The United

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No one is turning on him. I think the consensus is that is isn’t good enough to manager United full time and we should still stick to the plan of getting Pochettino or Ten Hag in the summer. Ralf was never mentioned as a serious potential replacement for ole, but only as a caretaker. I feel that his job will better serve implementping the right mentali and philosophy into United.
This is true mostly.

It is just amusing to see some people shits on previous managers then proceed to say things like I trust this guy to fix this and that etc. How do you even trust this guy? Based on nothing at all. And with his failed MLS coaches helping his 'genius' ideas implemented.

For a start, his formation seems ill suited to the squad and seemed outdated itself with the way we play it.
 

minoo-utd

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We're going to need more than that because next season Ronaldo (if we don't make top 4), Cavani, Pogba, Lingard, VDB, Matic and Mata won't be here.
Oh can’t imagine Ronaldo jumping from the ship but expected though.
 

Thiagoal

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I mean yes Ralf is up against it and the players clearly aren’t performing but there are some very basic things to try and strengthen the team that he’s not doing. Try a three man midfield? Freshen the team up with some younger legs? He just seems as clueless as Ole sadly
 

Morpheus 7

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He's talked a great game but we have seen 20 minutes against Palace. Not near enough impact or bounce. A few games in or not, being bossed by Newcastle and Wolves at Old Trafford is not acceptable for any manager. Maybe he's not had enough training sessions with Covid, the subs he can decide though and lineup. Mason being subbed, Elanga coming on the end. Scott and Matic playing 90 minutes, Ralph hasn't been here long but decisions have to be looked at. Can't put blame for the mess of this team on Ralph, that said we need to see some change, even minor. These players are a disgrace but the manager has an influence, we owe Ralph nothing. He has to prove to everyone he can change things.
 

Redlyn

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It most certainly is.

At this point I'm questioning if it would have been simpler to just trudge along with Ole until appointing a full time manager. The players have clearly not bought into this temporary manager role and are happy to coast through games, it also seems to have made them entirely miserable (pathetic bunch tbh so I have no sympathy for them) - I've never seen a bunch of players so miserable as well as inept on the pitch.

I've claimed for a long time that the squad is missing real character and on field leadership it's really showing now and the players have more or less downed tools on this season based on these performances.
His position had become untenable. The results were just too bad and the atmosphere too toxic. Remember the hellhole this place had become. Things are not great right now but there is hope. Let's see how we react. We just need a bit of patience.
 

Ali Dia

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We're going to need more than that because next season Ronaldo (if we don't make top 4), Cavani, Pogba, Lingard, VDB, Matic and Mata won't be here.
They might as well not be here now really. It’s a disgrace that we spend so much but we’ve to wheel out Matic again and again. A player who Chelsea happily binned off. He was meant tobe a short term signing under Jose to shore us up and here he still is. Drives me nuts. You’re putting a slow non aggressive engine into a team you want to win aggressively. It’s pure foolishness.
 

mu4c_20le

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Plus the fact Ole built this squad. Contact extensions and big money signings. He had countless opportunity to sort the midfield yet kept signing attackers and defenders.
Ralf picks the squad. And neither McFred nor Bruno were as bad under Ole as they've been right now.
 

pocco

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I was fully on board with the change of manager this season with those results, I just think that (at this stage) it's done nothing to improve things within the squad.

If anything we've absolutely guaranteed we finish outside of the top 4 because the players seem to hate Ralf and know he's leaving the managers position at the end of the season anyway.

It's a complete mess. So depressing.
Starting the ball rolling with the manager situation was the first part of the process. It would be absolutely toxic by now if he was still here.

The next phase was to look at the players, I don't think anybody would have ever said otherwise, but the problem now is that the spotlight is now fully on the players and it's far worse than we imagined. There's question marks over everyone for me, even players just signed. This is by far the darkest period since Fergie. At least once upon a time we had players that put in effort such as Herrera, Fellaini, Smalling, Young, Carrick etc. Not saying they were good but you hopefully get my point. Being left with massively overpaid 'superstars' that put in no effort and get outplayed AND outfought by average teams is as bad as it gets. What a mess.

We have a culture of entitlement and lack of graft, courage and pride. This is as far away from a Manchester United team as I can remember. I can't stand the fact half of these play for us.
 

UnitedWA

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If you want to use that argument, well Tuchel got his CL title, Arteta got FA cup and even Ole had 10 win streak with PSG elimination during the same period.
What's the point of implementing some new system for only 6 months like the next manager will use it? We all know that he won't, especially if we aim for Ten Haag. Ragnick's goal should be to steady the ship, to try to get top 4 in easiest possible way, and then to choose new manager whom he will support on all levels.
 
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Ace of Spades

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You’re blinded by red glasses there is no help for you
Not worth discussing if you think rashford gets in a city team or Fred.
And you are blinded by your biased opinion.
Not worth discussing indeed.

can’t compare national teams with club form, too many variables
Why not, when these players are brought to a similar level of coaching, their level clearly drops, and they are look just as hesitant and frustrating as the rest.
Of course there are variable, you are the one trying to compare us to City to validate your hyperbolic opinion that we have so little to no talent, that we can't even play like a functioning team and all of this is down to players.

Rashford is not a winger , he has no natural desire to create, greenwood is not a winger he’s just being shifted out there
Rashford is a winger, he has played there for most of his career, and that is a fact irrespective of your personal description of what a winger means. Same for Greenwood.

How many times when Adama came on did he simply knock it out his feet and cross it?
Not many, and if you think that is an example of good wing play then again that is your description of a winger, not the factual one.

how many times do city and Liverpool wingers get to the byline and pull it back?
They do it with co-ordinated play and creating space and working as a team, they don't rely on some fixed winger to do it. They do this regardless of who plays, so not really down to some mystical winger doing that.

When do our players ever do it? They all get wide then try to cut in and smash it goalwards
We crossed the ball a few times, and we also worked the channels and got behind them a couple of times. The problem was not that and has not been that, the problem has been the slow tempo, lack of energy and the lack of chemistry and cohesion in the team. No matter who has played, that has been a constant.

Fred matic and Mctom wouldn’t make the wolves midfield, this is the problem.
More hyperbolic nonsense.

yes Ronaldo would score shit loads because he’d have unbelievable service from de brunye sterling mahrez foden, players who are far far more intelligent than our bunch. If you can’t see that then your in for a frustrating few seasons until this lot are replaced because there isn’t anyone who can sort them out
They are no more intelligent than our players, they are just better coached and are far more functioning as a team. Those same players look just as brainless as our players when they are not playing for their clubs. There are certainly managers out there who can sort them out, and we do not and should not need any replacements to play as a functioning team.

If you think that simply buying new players will magically solve all our problems then you are in for rude awakening. Not like we have not tried it before, every player that plays well at other teams just magically turns crap when they get here, wonder why that is ?
 

yamo123x

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We have zero quality in midfield, no control at all, no link between the defence and attack...
This is not RR's fault...the midfield players at his disposal are absolutely crap.

That said the body language of the players is atrocious, so few of them giving max effort
 

Roboc7

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This idea that Ole had laid foundations and we were only a player or two away from challenging was total nonsense. Lots of these players aren’t good enough, some passed their best and a lot of the ones that are talented enough lack the character and/or work rate to make it at the highest level.
Rangnick is probably trying to change too much, too quickly and a lot of these players look like they are either out the door ASAP or just waiting for the next manager.

It’s also clear the formation and tactics aren’t working and he needs to make changes and take responsibility for that but there is no quick fix here.
 

mu4c_20le

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You must be joking. Bruno has been poor for a long time and McFred were the crux of the problems for everyone on here. Let's not rewrite history.
Bruno scored a hat trick at the start of the season :lol: whats a long time to you...six weeks?
 

RedAlert27

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Turning on a manager so soon is ridiculous. These players haven't taken responsibility on the pitch for a long time. No desire or leadership. We look like we're still 7/8 quality signings away from mounting a serious challenge.
 

justsomebloke

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His position had become untenable. The results were just too bad and the atmosphere too toxic. Remember the hellhole this place had become. Things are not great right now but there is hope.
100%. It was over.

Seriously - what the hell happened this year? Last season, we were a good to (mostly) very good team, which a lot of people already seem to have forgotten. This season, we started out as (mostly) middling to good, then nosedived to being an absolute accelerating trainwreck, beyond all notion of repair. Ole out, Carrick and then Rangnick in, which has taken us back to (mostly) middling to good. But no more than that - we're still a long way off what we were for most of last season, or after the January window of the season before that. And, we don't seem to be improving.

Something, somewhere, has broken and it is not obvious what it is. It's not Rangnick's system is bad or unclear (still less that he doesn't have one, as some already seem prepared to believe). It's not that Ole was incompetent (though half the board seem determined to believe so). It can't be that a bunch of players who were key performers not long ago have suddenly gone to shit in no time, and all at the same time.
 

sammyhol

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Let’s have it right… other than 30 mins against Palace, it’s been absolutely crap.

I buy all the arguments about morale and attitude, but that doesn’t completely absolve the manager.

the shape looks terrible. I have never seen a United team give the ball up so easily….

Playing 2 mid 30s strikers with no legs…

A formation that no other top teams play…

odd substitutions like Mason today…

its very early days, but it’s fair to say that the early signs do not look good
 

mu4c_20le

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Yep. Just a deluded Ole inner with a poor memory.
I don't care about Ole. I'm just here to stop people like you from throwing players under the bus as you struggle to grasp what's going on.
 

AndyMUFC

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Anyone expecting him to come in and get this team to play amazing football with this group of players was always going to be disappointed.

Hopefully he can help us become more of a modern team in his 2 years as a consultant.
 

justsomebloke

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Let’s have it right… other than 30 mins against Palace, it’s been absolutely crap.

I buy all the arguments about morale and attitude, but that doesn’t completely absolve the manager.

the shape looks terrible. I have never seen a United team give the ball up so easily….

Playing 2 mid 30s strikers with no legs…

A formation that no other top teams play…

odd substitutions like Mason today…

its very early days, but it’s fair to say that the early signs do not look good
You can't say "let's have it right" and then jump right on the hyperbole train. This has not been "absolute crap". Some of it's been good, some of it's been okay, some of it's been below par and a little bit of it has been absolute crap. Not impressive - but mediocre.
 

Drizzle

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100%. It was over.

Seriously - what the hell happened this year? Last season, we were a good to (mostly) very good team, which a lot of people already seem to have forgotten. This season, we started out as (mostly) middling to good, then nosedived to being an absolute accelerating trainwreck, beyond all notion of repair. Ole out, Carrick and then Rangnick in, which has taken us back to (mostly) middling to good. But no more than that - we're still a long way off what we were for most of last season, or after the January window of the season before that. And, we don't seem to be improving.

Something, somewhere, has broken and it is not obvious what it is. It's not Rangnick's system is bad or unclear (still less that he doesn't have one, as some already seem prepared to believe). It's not that Ole was incompetent (though half the board seem determined to believe so). It can't be that a bunch of players who were key performers not long ago have suddenly gone to shit in no time, and all at the same time.
Some combination of the following reasons:
  1. Fans being back meaning more pressure on a mentally weak squad
  2. Ronaldo unbalances the team tactically and psychologically
  3. Euro hangovers for key players
  4. Entropy, Ole's vibes had run their course and we regressed to the mean.
  5. Ultimately, when things fall apart they do so slowly, and then quickly.
 

Tyrion

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I remember the start of the season and the thread "Top 10 squads in Europe" where 80 % of the people were putting us AT LEAST 3rd. Now more and more are starting to see the true reality where we are not even in the Top 10.
Or maybe we're overreacting to bad form now just as we were overreacting to big signings in the summer?

Same happened with Chelsea. At the end of Lampards time, people defending him said he didn't have the players to succeed. A few months under Tuchel and people said they'll push City all the way. Now, they've changed their minds again and City's team is way better apparently.

We are Top 10 ito players.
 

LawmanMan

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Ralf is another day late, pound short appointment after we missed out on Klopp and Tuchel.
 

macheda14

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Let’s have it right… other than 30 mins against Palace, it’s been absolutely crap.

I buy all the arguments about morale and attitude, but that doesn’t completely absolve the manager.

the shape looks terrible. I have never seen a United team give the ball up so easily….

Playing 2 mid 30s strikers with no legs…

A formation that no other top teams play…

odd substitutions like Mason today…

its very early days, but it’s fair to say that the early signs do not look good
I mean the point is those 30 minutes are exactly how he wants us to play. We can play like that, but for some reason we aren’t.

We now finally have a period of about 5 days of actual training. Something we haven’t had under him yet. Let’s give it a few more games before apportioning him more of the blame.
 

horsechoker

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If you don't turn on Rangnick now, don't bother turning on him later. We've already made our decision and you're not welcome in our clubhouse. You're either with us or against us, you either sit down or stand up, you either punch or you get punched.
 

justsomebloke

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Some combination of the following reasons:
  1. Fans being back meaning more pressure on a mentally weak squad
  2. Ronaldo unbalances the team tactically and psychologically
  3. Euro hangovers for key players
  4. Entropy, Ole's vibes had run their course and we regressed to the mean.
  5. Ultimately, when things fall apart they do so slowly, and then quickly.
All possibilities. Your point 5 strikes a chord.
 

Stookie

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Well, this season is a write off already and he’s only here until the end of the season. Interesting to see how it pans out. I can imagine how it will pan out but we’ll see.