MANCHESTER UNITED’S class of ’92 have outlined the enormity of the job that awaits Ralf Rangnick at Old Trafford.
The German, 63, has not yet received his work permit so the interim boss is expected to be in the stands for tomorrow’s clash with Arsenal as Michael Carrick continues as caretaker boss.
But United legends Gary Neville and Nicky Butt have delivered a warning as to what Rangnick faces when he eventually takes charge with the club lying eighth in the Premier League.
The top four remains a realistic aim but Neville cites a ‘disconnected’ and ‘disjointed’ team that has had a terrible start to the season while Butt reckons standards must be driven by United’s players with Rangnick replacing sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during the hectic winter schedule.
Eight-time Prem winner Neville said: “We’re 12 points behind Chelsea, it’s been a terrible start to the season and the manager has lost his job.
“For Ralf Rangnick to finish in the top four would be a successful season. If we could win the FA Cup that would be incredible.
“I’d go for Ralf to win trophies in the first six months.
“He has to somehow get those players who have looked so disconnected and disjointed in the last two or three months sorted straight away.
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“They have lost all their confidence, they haven’t really got a system of play, I’m not sure if they are a counter-attacking team, they are not very good defensively.
“He’s got a big job to do but top four has to be the target for him this season.”
Butt also won the league title six times as well as being part of the Treble winning season of 1999 under Sir Alex Ferguson.
And the ex-midfielder reckons standards need to come from United’s players rather than Rangnick.
Butt said: “It has to come from the players individually. I was fortunate to play with amazing people and players and we drove ourselves.
“We knew the standard needed to be high. We would take the can for each other. We would understand that we would have to pull ourselves out of the dungeon to get up to the top and we did that ourselves.
“The manager comes in and sets the tone but it’s up to the players to manage that day-to-day.
“You can’t ask a manager to help you to get on a football pitch and give your all, work hard and do what is expected of a Man United player.
“The players have to look at themselves before the manager. For a manager to come in and change a whole group of players in a tactical way then he is going to have to coach them.
“When you get to December, January and February it’s such a busy period of the season and it is hard to get coaching time.
“He has to get the belief, demands on the players day-to-day and the players have to drive it themselves. We would be calling each other out.
“But we got to a level where we understood that from each other.
HUGE CHALLENGE
“The challenge for Rangnick is to put the belief in the players and say, ‘Come on, it’s time you stepped up to the plate and manage yourselves’.
“You’ve got World Cup winners in the dressing room, players who have won things, big superstars and they should be able now to demand off each other.
“It’s difficult for a new manager to come in at this time of the season.”
Phil Neville added: “The expectation at Manchester United is always to win and that’s probably what cost Ole his job.
“Rangnick comes in with a lot to do with the position of the team at the moment.
“He’s got to get the confidence back in the team and start winning and competing again against teams above them like Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City.
“This is Manchester United, He has to compete, win trophies and get to finals of cup competitions and that will mean United are successful.”
Former Red Devils right-back Neville also believes there is a lack of strength from the senior players in comparison to United’s glory days as well as their current rivals in Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Neville added: “Lingard, Pogba, Rashford, Greenwood, McTominay have all come through the youth system.
“There are five players who have come through the development path.
“Ole did have belief in the young players but the problem for United at the moment is the senior players in the dressing room aren’t as good as the ones we had to look up to.
“I look at the other clubs, they have Henderson, Van Dijk, Salah and Alisson at Liverpool, really strong players, Chelsea have Thiago Silva, Jorginho and Lukaku and they are really experienced whereas Manchester United don’t have a strong group of experienced players yet.
HAD TO GO
“Cristiano (Ronaldo) and (Raphael) Varane have only just come in so they have to make sure they settle in. If they can get them together then there is an opportunity for those young players to grow.”
The Class of ’92, who were speaking on a live stream with ZujuGP’s Facebook page, played alongside Solskjaer but conceded the team was right for the Norwegian to exit the United hotseat.
Butt added: “With Ole it’s very difficult for the group of us to sit here and criticise because we know him so well, we played with him and he’s a friend of ours.
“He was in the role for nearly three years and did an unbelievable job at the start to get the good feel factor back around the club and the team.
“He did an amazing job behind the scenes to get the ethos and belief back into the club which he did.
“But if we’re all honest we saw at the end of his tenure he struggled to get results from what is an exceptional squad.
“He’d be honest himself and say the results should have been better towards the end.
“You know sooner or later you are going to get sacked if you’re not getting the results that a big club like Man United demands.
“It was a sad day when he left but it was a day everyone expected because it was just around the corner.”
Ryan Giggs said: “Ole took over in difficult circumstances at the beginning. Then got the job full-time and did a really good job.
“Last season was good in a way because they finished second and got to a final but expectations rose so much that all the fans – especially with the recruitment in the summer – expected to be pushing for the Premier League which is difficult at this time with Chelsea, City and Liverpool doing so well.
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“But we’re Manchester United and we expect to be competing for the Premier League.
“A few games in and we’re not doing that. He’s a friend of ours, an ex-team-mate and someone we had the pleasure to play with, a great bloke but unfortunately it had to come towards an end.
“With Man United, the pressure is always to be competing at the top and we weren’t.”
