Ralf Rangnick ‘knew he was going into the lion’s den’ as ex-Man Utd boss’ protege reveals ‘part of club has been lost’

RALF RANGNICK discovered the “identity” and “discipline” had been lost at Manchester United after he took over at the club, his former assistant Jesse Marsch has revealed.

German Rangnick, 65, was appointed interim boss at Old Trafford in November 2021 following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Ralf Rangnick endured a difficult spell as Manchester United’s interim managerAFP

Rangnick’s ex-assistant Jesse Marsch has revealed the flaws at Old TraffordGetty

He was due to move upstairs into a consultancy role at the end of the season when a new head coach was appointed.

But after just 11 wins from 31 matches, Rangnick left in the summer to take the Austrian national team job.

And former Leeds manager Marsch, 50, who worked under Rangnick at RB Leipzig, has lifted the lid on the problems his old boss encountered with the Red Devils.

Speaking on Up Front with Simon Jordan, he said: “I think he knew he was going into the lion’s den but he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to coach Manchester United. This is a massive opportunity for anyone.

“He didn’t play classic Ralf Rangnick football, that was one thing I was a little bit surprised of.

“He felt early on that it wasn’t going to be easy with that group of players to play the kind of football that he wanted.”

He then added: “What I heard from Ralf and others that were there at the time is that the cohesion in the club was next to zero.

“That their communication with the scouting departments and the sporting departments and the directors made them feel there probably wasn’t much of a future for them there, which maybe was the case.

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“But again with any club, especially the best, this idea of the pressure from within for everyone to understand exactly what the identity is and the commitment to stay disciplined to do that every day is usually what dictates how good they can become.

“From afar, and from what I’ve heard, that part has been lost at Man U.”

After Rangnick’s departure, Erik ten Hag came in and enjoyed a relatively successful season, winning the Carabao Cup and finishing third in the Premier League.

But he has struggled to build on that work in the current campaign as Man Utd are languishing in eighth, nine points adrift of the top four.

And Rangnick’s comments from April 2022 will be ringing in the fans ears once more.

Towards the end of his time at Old Trafford, he said: “You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are.

‘Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart.

“If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.”

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