Ralf Rangnick reveals major problem with the Manchester United squad
Ralf Rangnick who recently took over as the interim manager of Manchester United has already earmarked a major problem within the squad. His team will take on Norwich City in the Premier League later today, where he could have the opportunity to win his second league game in a row.
The 63-year-old fielded a heavily rotated squad against Young Boys in the Champions League as the match ended 1-1. It would have been a perfect opportunity for him to assess the rest of the team and form a plan moving forward. Man United would want to show improvements in their next game, having spent a decent amount of time under the new coach.
Speaking in an interview with MUTV’s Stewart Gardner (h/t Manchester United official website), Rangnick has conveyed an issue within the club that the Red Devils players need to improve on. However, he added that it is because of them getting accustomed to playing in a specific manner.
“Well, it’s not so much a question of quality of passing. This really stuck out in the first couple of training sessions. When I compare that with teams in Germany, that they can do that on a high level. It’s more a question of where and when do they play the ball forward.”
In some ways, the German appears to hint at a lack of forward movement. Most of Man United’s play is focused on playing either squarely to the backwards. While he does not have any qualms regarding the technical proficiency of his players, their application has been found wanting.
“For me, there is still too much playing square and backwards. For me, it’s to implement the idea of playing vertical, whenever possible. Therefore, we need to change a little bit the mindset. It’s not so much the technical abilities to play that ball, it’s more the way they have been used to playing so far.”
Valuable insight
It seems that the majority of us supporters were wrong after all as we believed the team lacks technical players. Most of us formed an opinion that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to utilise a counter-attacking style to compensate for the lack of technicality. But the German boss tells us otherwise and points to the actual issues.
These words would undoubtedly bring in a lot of expectation within the fanbase as we are desperate for some good football. While there were times when we were great under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it was not consistent enough to be classified as an identity. Not to mention, taking the initiative to our opponents would match the identity of a top club like us.
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Looking back to some matches under Ole, we struggled to beat teams who were in the middle or lower end of the league table. However, we used to have a great showing against heavyweights in general. The reason could be the lack of vertical passing that the United manager has mentioned.
When teams sit back in a low block, moving the ball verticality is what helps to break them down, and the lack of it could explain our struggles against the lower sides. It would be interesting to see the changes the coach instils into the squad in the coming fixtures.
