Ralf Rangnick may not have brought much to Manchester United but he has at least lent a disarming honesty. Supporters who did not appreciate results and performances could at least appreciate a willingness to tell it like it is, though a number of his players probably didn’t. If some of his predecessors at Old Trafford – a certain supposedly special Portuguese individual, in particular – played the blame game, Rangnick believes in looking in the mirror first.
His verdict on his time at Old Trafford was not an attempt to duck responsibility. “We could all have done better, including myself. We all have to be as self-critical as we can be,” he said. A few minutes earlier, he had reflected on what he branded his biggest disappointment: a failure to generate the required team spirit. Rangnick proved neither a motivator nor a unifier. As he lamented United’s lack of a winning mentality, it was tempting to draw a comparison with the last German pressing evangelist to pitch up mid-season in the north-west. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool became, in their manager’s words, “mentality monsters.” United have been frail and fragile, a team Rangnick believes never really recovered from their Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid, whose last game was a 4-0 capitulation at Brighton.
