A serious question - have we done a very man United thing and totally flip flopped styles again? Fans on the forum saying Ralf can't get anything from Bruno, Ronaldo, pogba, Sancho and needs a team of hard working young players to be signed... If that is true, is he the stupidest interim manager possible and either should have been a long term appointment and commit to a new project / clear out the Bruno's of the team or we should have signed someone who had a chance of getting the best out of the squad we have over the time he will be here.
Given we are where we are, we should really be looking at getting a very similar manager in the summer and trying to move Bruno and rashford etc on. I know people saw rangnick doesn't get on well with hassenhuttl but rangnick will barely be involved with the club by the sounds of things, and Ralf H is the closest available manager to RR based on what we are hearing today, that he can't work with top players and needs them replaced by hard working hungrier players.
I'd be fine with that if we actually commited to it, just annoying that we 'committed' to a different type of build and recently spent 80m on Sancho and 60 on Bruno who are both two of the best players in the world
Rangnick was brought in as a long term plan not a short term fix, the club are well aware he'd want to instill a totally new playing style. It's very early days to be talking about moving people on, he's barely had a couple of weeks with the squad massively hampered by Covid and Carrington being closed and he is still arranging his own back room staff.
Look at any other club that committed to such a thing - it has always taken time. Fergie, Wenger, Klopp, I could go on - these are managers that come in and mold things into their own fashion and don't necessarily hit the ground running. Often players will eventually adapt and buy in to the changes.
It isn't even "writing off the season" for a long term plan, Rangnick is bringing a much more disciplined style of play. Sticking with Ole when things clearly weren't working would have been writing the season off. We may end up playing some less exciting football over the next couple months while the players begin to pick up and feel comfortable in the philosophy but in the short term we certainly look less of a calamity. Plus we'll be starting next season with much of the system in process rather than having to write off the first half of next season while players adjust, and the intention is to get a manager in who while they'll have their own ideas they will be building off the work Rangnick has started and will continue to advocate.
One thing Rangnick, and others of his ilk, always say is that their squads need a telepathic understanding - it is drilling this instinct into them that takes time. Since he has come in you can visibly see our players thinking on the ball and taking a second longer and this is what will take the most work and time. For now with the ball at their feet they'll be thinking a million miles an hour of how to progress play, the drills, who will be moving for them whereas if we stick to the training and game plans eventually you'll see that progress to being far more fluid and intuitive.
For what it is worth I think Sancho will flourish, he is the player we have who is most used to an adjacent system of football and what he spent his formative years playing. He isn't some wild card fancy winger like many thought, he's a very technical player who is used to floating centrally and inter-linking with similar players with quick triangular movements and passing. The team is moving more in line with football suitable for Sancho. Bruno is a bit of an odd one; he has all the talent in the world but is the most undisciplined - which worked in more chaotic structures where he could constantly try things but now he is going to be forced to playing in a system that relies on cohesion - he has the talent to do so but he needs some serious coaching to reign his style of play, if his mind adjusts then he will be a force of nature with the talent and work ethic he possesses. Plus of course these style of teams aren't all 100% robotic and often have a player of two with a wild card nature about them - look at De Bruyne at City, while he perfectly plays their system sometimes he does break the expected passage of play to do something remarkable, similarly with Salah at Liverpool, or even look at Tiki Taka teams they also tend to have players that while playing the style also have somewhat of a license to operate independently. The most boring and robotic inclination of Tiki Taka was likely Spain 2010-2012 and Iniesta and Mata (when played) contributed heavily to the drilled play but also tried passages of play independently.
Pogba is a very intelligent player (who sometimes makes very stupid decisions) but he hasn't played in a system like we're moving towards at all, but his biggest challenge will probably contributing off the ball when he is used to working alongside a player who would cover for him. I have my doubts, but the "system" is flexible and there could very well be room for him. Either way all signs point to him leaving anyway.
Rashford I like and he has repeatedly shown us what he can offer, but his decision making is appalling. He is in serious need of coaching and given a proper football education. He needs to be dropped for the time being, as currently it is hard to see Rashford as a first XI player for the club - but he is excellent to keep in the squad and be used rotationally. Not in a "plays cup games and the odd 5 minute appearance" sense, I mean someone who still gets a considerable amount of game time and some league starts.
People writing off Rangnick already are mentalists, it is incredibly knee jerk to be doing so. We're weeks into the process that has been hampered massively by Covid and an inability to train properly with the whole squad, and the gradual introduction of coaches and training methods. Hey, at least we got our first clean sheet in about two years. I don't consider myself a massive disciple of Rangnick and if things don't work then we reassess and change trajectories (sigh... again), but outwardly it looks to be the right direction for the club and the very least they can do is commit to it and see how it pans out. And that includes fans actually backing this club for a change. A lot of our fan base is pathetic Football Twitter types who unless we win 8-0 in a trailblazing fashion every week will always moan, and whinge, and target players or staff and it is getting far far worse. There were probably types who wanted us to sack Fergie and sell Ruud during that period but now they have platforms to spout that shite on and have multiplied massively.
