Manchester United’s start to the season has alarm bells ringing but their problems date back years, with Ralf Rangnick previously analysing what the club needed to change
Rio Ferdinand admits no one looked close enough at Ralf Rangnick’s Manchester United assessment after he claimed the club need “open heart surgery”.
The highly-regarded German tactician took charge at Old Trafford for several months after serving as a stop-gap once the club sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2021. He oversaw a difficult period with the team in free fall, eventually finishing sixth in the Premier League.
United’s problems were clear for all to see and, shortly before his exit, he gave a damning verdict on the state of the club. Erik ten Hag was hired and Rangnick departed shortly after, but his comments about the club continue to bear fruit after their poor start to the season.
Ferdinand said on his FIVE YouTube channel: “People are looking for a scapegoat, that’s the way the media is right now people look for a scapegoat and go that’s the reason. I see people saying [Marcus] Rashford isn’t working hard enough, or Bruno [Fernandes] is the captain. Ralf Rangnick’s comments when he left were along the lines of this doesn’t need medicine this needs open heart surgery.
“No one looked at that comment and thought ‘let me dig into that’. It shows you that not one individual is going to solve this problem. We had Cristiano Ronaldo, what he’s done in the game, and he can’t solve it. We’ve had a load of managers come in with huge reputations and they haven’t sorted it out. Spent a lot of money and that hasn’t sorted it out.”
Ten Hag has spent well over £150m once again on the likes of Rasmus Hojlund, Andre Onana and Mason Mount but the team’s problems have been regularly exposed in defeats to Tottenham, Arsenal and Brighton as their problems continue to deepen.
Rangnick said at the time: “You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are,” he said. “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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United though continue to face several problems with a host of their players underperforming. The likes of Harry Maguire remain at the club despite their being little chance of a major role. Jadon Sancho continues to perform below his value and has clashed with Ten Hag whilst Casemiro’s age has been highlighted as an issue.
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The Post Rio Ferdinand spots crucial Man Utd mistake after ignoring Ralf Rangnick advice Originally Posted on www.mirror.co.uk