Manchester United are being faced with the daunting task of undertaking a complete rebuild this summer – and before doing so they should cast a glance at Liverpool.
The yawning gulf in class between the two clubs has never been clearer following Liverpool’s utterly dominant 4-0 win over United at Anfield on Tuesday night. United were barely even able to make it into a contest as Jurgen Klopp’s side eased to a comfortable victory which sent them top of the Premier League and left their rivals languishing in seventh, their season in tatters.
United are currently in limbo, waiting for their disastrous season to be over so they can get down to the business of building for the future. The most important piece of the jigsaw is already in place, with Erik ten Hag poised to arrive on a four-year contract after agreeing to leave Ajax for Old Trafford, but many others remain undetermined.
Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Edinson Cavani are all out of contract this summer and there are doubts surrounding plenty of other United players. Ten Hag is understandably keen to have his say on transfer activity at Old Trafford, while Ralf Rangnick has also pitched in with recommendations to the board.
Rangnick is ready to step aside when Ten Hag arrives and into a consultancy role, but the interim manager has already made very clear what he believes needs to be done in the summer transfer window. Even before the Anfield thrashing, the German was publicly laying bare the problems at the club.
"There might be a couple of players – and I have already named those players to the board – that independent from formation, from style of football, and independent from a new manager, that could be of interest for a club like United,” he told Sky Sports this week.
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“But in general, if you look at the size of the way the team needs to be rebuilt, I mean, it's not enough to bring in three or four new players. It will be more, bearing in mind how many players will no longer be here with the contracts running out.
"I think apart from the goalkeeping, we need to make sure that we improve the squad in all areas. To bring in players who really help the team to get better – again, it's about the profile. What kind of players do we need in order to play whichever kind of football we want to play?"
A rebuild of more than “three of four new players” is quite a daunting task for United, who are being led by Ten Hag, Rangnick, football director John Murtough and technical director Darren Fletcher. Before they make any moves, the United brains trust would be wise to look to Tuesday’s opponents for inspiration.
Liverpool are now the real deal as they continue to compete for a historic quadruple, but it has taken lots of work to get to where they are. Klopp arrived at Anfield in October 2015 to take over from Brendan Rodgers. In the following transfer windows the club began to build the German’s squad.
The summer transfer window of 2016 saw Liverpool laying the foundations for Klopp’s spell as manager, bringing in six players. Sadio Mane was bought from Southampton for £34million and Georginio Wijnaldum arrived from Newcastle for £25m, while Loris Karius (£4.7m), Ragnar Klavan (£4.2m), Joel Matip (free) and Alex Manninger (free) were all signed.
Nearly six years on, Mane and Matip remain key first-team players for Klopp. Wijnaldum was a consistent performer before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain last summer and Karius made 49 appearances before being moved aside for Alisson after his Champions League final disaster in 2018.
Liverpool continued to build over the following transfer windows, adding Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson in the summer of 2017, Virgil van Dijk in January 2018 and Fabinho, Naby Keita and Alisson that summer, but the groundwork had already been done.
United are currently in a deep hole after what Gary Neville has termed “10 years of mismanagement”. There are structural issues at the club that need to be addressed, but the immediate concern is the summer rebuild. For that, they can take some confidence from their rivals.
