When Manchester United officials spoke to Ralf Rangnick about the role of interim manager they were impressed by the German's vision for the club and the way he understood football, so much so they were willing to offer him that consultancy role to entice him out of his contract with Lokomotiv Moscow.
But as well as Rangnick speaks about the game and as clear as his understanding of what has gone wrong over the years at Old Trafford is, what he was lacking was recent coaching experience and that was always going to be a risk with a short-term appointment.
When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stepped in for Jose Mourinho there was an immediate upturn in results, but the atmosphere had become toxic at that point and a few smiles and pats on the back were enough to lift the mood amongst a talented squad.
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This time, the issues were different. United's squad needed tactical direction and while Rangnick can give it to them at their best, there is a legitimate argument as to how in tune he is with the modern game when his coaching experience over the last decade is a year in Germany's second division and then the 2018/19 campaign with RB Leipzig.
There was no experience of managing the kind of stellar names on show at United, no recent record in Europe to speak of and no army of backroom staff to help him.
His spell out of the game meant he's had to call on coaches who are complete unknowns to this United squad to help. The departures of Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna have probably hurt United more than it looked like at the time.
Rangnick has made some progress at Old Trafford since the start of December, but it's hardly been significant. There's an argument that United have actually looked best under Carrick this season.
When the 63-year-old was handed the job four-and-a-half months ago there looked like there was plenty to salvage from this season, but that's not been the case. There has been a limp exit from the FA Cup and now an entirely predictable defeat in the Champions League.
An average run in the Premier League has cost United momentum in the top four race and they feel like significant outsiders to be back in Europe's elite competition now.
This was the first Champions League knockout match Rangnick had taken charge of since Schalke took on United in the semi-finals in 2010/11. That's over a decade out of this competition, so is it that surprising that his team looked tactically second best for almost all of the tie against a side as streetwise as Atletico?
Rangnick was cutting about his own team's performance in Madrid but he got selection and strategy wrong in the Wanda Metropolitano as well. Collectively United were fortunate to get a draw.
They failed to capitalise on that good fortune at Old Trafford. United started with the kind of intensity you would expect but once the clock ticked past the half-hour Atletico grew into the match and after that, the hosts ran out of ideas quickly.
It was a greatest hits show from Atletico in the second half, ensuring the game turned into a stop-start affair, helped by a poor performance from referee Slavko Vincic, but United were clueless when it came to breaking Atletico down and there was little fluency or invention to their play.
United have now won nine of their 20 matches under Rangnick and the only positive result they've managed against what you might consider elite opposition was Saturday's thrilling success against Tottenham.
Not all of this is Rangnick's fault, of course. Plenty of these players have questions to answer at the end of the season and some should be heading towards the end of their Old Trafford careers.
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But when they appointed a manager with a coaching CV as sparse as Rangnick's for the previous decade this was also a risk. Maybe it will prove to be a risk worth taking if he uses his consultancy role to help finally bring some direction to Old Trafford, but right now the risk looks like it is going to lead to Europa League football next season and any long-term reset with Rangnick in the back offices will be beginning on the back foot.
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