It is coming up to three months since Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge of Manchester United and if you feel things could have gone better, the bad news is that was the easy part. This upcoming run of fixtures, between Sunday’s Manchester derby and the end of April, is far more difficult.
At least when you look at the league table, United are where they want to be, or where they can best hope to finish. Fourth place is not the “ultimate objective”, as football director John Murtough was at pains to point out at last week’s fans’ forum, but it is the ceiling on their aspirations this season.
