MY ACCOUNT
Ralf Rangnick does not believe it will take “three or four years” for Manchester United to be back competing for the Premier League title, claiming the task ahead of the club “is not rocket science”.
United head into Tuesday’s game against Liverpool 19 points behind their rivals, who can move top of the table with a draw at Anfield.
The Red Devils have now not won the league in nine years since Alex Ferguson retired and have scarcely looked capable of troubling the genuine contenders.
This has been another difficult season and their future is far from certain, with United set to appoint a new manager – widely expected to be Erik ten Hag – in place of interim boss Rangnick at the end of the campaign.
But for all the pessimism around United’s situation, Rangnick suggests it will not take a huge amount of work for the 20-time English champions to return to the top of the sport.
He cited Liverpool’s turnaround under Jurgen Klopp as evidence of that.
“I don’t think a club like Manchester United can afford to take three or four years in order to achieve that [competing for the title],” he said. “And I don’t think that it is necessary.
“We spoke about Liverpool earlier on, how long it took for them.
“[It could happen] after two or three windows, if you know what you are looking for. If you don’t know what, you’ll always be looking for the needle in a haystack, but if you know what kind of football you want to play, what kind of profiles for each individual position, then it is about finding them. Not only finding them but convincing them to come.
“Liverpool at the time they finished eighth [in 2015-16]. The year after they didn’t play [European] football at all, so the full focus in the second season of Jurgen was on the Premier League and the national cup competitions.
“Then it took, I don’t know, two transfer windows. But even in the other transfer windows that came later on, they just made a lot of very, very good transfers and signings. This is what it’s all about.
“It is not that complicated, it’s not rocket science, but in order to have the best possible wind, you need to know where your destination haven is. If you don’t know that, it’s always difficult.”
Klopp ended Liverpool’s 30-year wait for a title in 2019-20, but Rangnick believes the fix for United is too straightforward for them to endure a similar drought.
“[Thirty years] without a title? I suppose that this will not happen because it’s pretty obvious what needs to be changed and that there needs to be a rebuild for the future,” he said, “So I don’t think that this will happen.”
