Andy Mitten was saying a couple of days ago that he knows quite a few players aren't buying into it and haven't bought into it. Gary Neville is on record as saying he knows who has been leaking shite to the press. It is pretty clear that the #1 reason for our continued limp performances is a toxic dressing room culture.
Rangnick was tasked with two things - whilst both being a lame duck what with the interim spell, and without being given a player or two in January when it is evident to all that our midfield is an enormous weakness - get results and guide the team to a top 4 finish, whilst also develop the team into a team. It is not really on Rangnick that what he is known for and what he stands for in football is a style of play that is high intensity progressive football and that the board chose to go for him as an interim. But given his philosophy, quite a few of our players aren't a good fit for that style of football. If we were talking about a well run club, we could assume that the long-term vision was to go that route regardless and exposing this team to that kind of style now would accelerate the process with the new manager in summer already wise to who needs to be discarded from the get go. However, we are not a well run club so there may have been zero logic behind installing Rangnick with his style. We can see that having a team that has, over the last 6 years, played counter attacking football, with some glaring weaknesses, presents a major challenge in pursuing both a major change to our style of play whilst being insistent upon getting results no matter what. You have to prioritise which is more important. And we're a short-term club. Now that we're out of the running for CL qualification and Rangnick has nothing to lose, it is time for him to throw caution to the wind and simply go with players whom he trusts can be counted on in the league.
In hindsight, had I been in his shoes, given that interim job, I think insisting on Keane as a #2 would have been a super wise choice. You have to introduce respect into that dressing room and counter this hideous player power that has completely gone out of control.
When the players feel free to do as they please, whether that is follow instructions in a game, leak shite to the press, use injury layoffs as holidays, skip games if they're not feeling it (that's a gradient scale), and they know that wherever else they go they won't get the same high wages for the same crap performances, you've simply got a bag of shit.
As others have pointed out, Rangnick does not tell Bruno to do a single-man press, or for Rashford to do a couple of sprints to close down the keeper to tick his stat boxes. Rangnick has been very transparent about what he has been pleased with and what he hasn't after our matches. It's pretty clear the team is not following instructions other than in spurts, but even someone as upfront as Rangnick cannot really say that in his pressers. A #2 like Keane could though.
This thread could more aptly be posing the question: Was there a genuine long-term vision behind appointing Rangnick specifically, to which I worry the answer is no. To change tack now requires savaging this squad and I doubt there is any appetite at board level for such forward steps.