Manchester United players have wrong DNA –says Ralf Rangnick
Rangnick, the interim manager, pointed out that United have lacked a coherent recruitment strategy and identity
Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has told the Manchester United board they cannot afford to keep repeating the errors of the past as he criticised them for buying players who lack aggression and who do not have the right DNA to make the club great again.
United are seventh, 23 points behind the Premier League leaders Manchester City, and are unlikely to qualify for the Champions League because of poor results, such as Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Leicester City. United will fall seven points adrift of Arsenal, who have two games in hand, if Mikel Arteta’s side beat Crystal Palace Monday night.
Rangnick, the interim manager, pointed out that United have lacked a coherent recruitment strategy and identity, unlike City and Liverpool, who have won 16 trophies between them in the past seven years. “Those two teams have been built together and recruited over a period of five or six years, all of them under the premise of how their coaches want to play,” Rangnick said.
Rangnick seemed aggrieved about the lack of physicality in his squad. He dismissed the idea that his players were not aggressive enough because of their mental approach to the game. “I do not think it is to do with mindset, it is to do with the DNA of players,” he said.
“It is difficult to change a technically great player into a physical, aggressive player and we have a lot of people who are technical players, but the team could do with more physicality.”
The German seemed perplexed as to why United had recruited so poorly over the last few years. “It takes the right decisions and [deciding] where you want to go, what kind of players you want, what kind of manager you want, and then in every transfer window try to get the best players possible,” he said.
“This is not rocket science. It does not necessarily need three or four years, maybe two or three transfer windows, then the situation could be different.”
Either Erik ten Hag or Mauricio Pochettino, both of whom have been interviewed, is likely to become manager next season.
