MY ACCOUNT
Paul Scholes believes Ralf Rangnick is not the right manager for Manchester United, whose poor form continued against Southampton on Saturday.
United drew a second successive Premier League game after Che Adams cancelled out Jadon Sancho’s opener at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils were held by Burnley in midweek, which came on the back of a penalty shoot-out defeat to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup on February 4.
United have led at half-time in all three matches, with the two Premier League draws marking only the second time in the competition’s history they have failed to win consecutive matches after being in front at the break in both.
United sit fifth and have given their rivals the chance to nose ahead in the race for Champions League qualification.
Rangnick replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November on an interim basis until the end of the season, with the former RB Leipzig coach and director also set to take on a consultancy role until 2024.
However, United have averaged fewer goals per game under Rangnick than they have under any other manager in Premier League history (1.4 – 14 goals in 10 games), and their recent run has led to speculation the squad are not buying into the German’s ideas.
Rangnick refuted these claims in his pre-match news conference, yet United great Scholes has not been impressed by what he has seen so far.
“That’s the feeling around the place [quiet inside Old Trafford] there’s a lack of interest now with how the season’s been,” Scholes said in his role as a pundit on BT Sport.
“It’s been a bad seven days, it’s really been a bad six or seven months.
“The sacking of Ole was coming, we all knew that, but where was the plan? There has to be a plan, there has to be an elite, top coach into the football club to revive the football club.
“It’s Manchester United, they should have the best of everything, and to not have a plan and bring what is a sporting director… he’s coached a team two years out of the last 10.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like the man, he comes across well, but he’s looked like he’s lacked coaching in the last five or six years. They’re a team of individuals, you look at the difference today in United to Southampton.
“Southampton were brilliant, the coaching, methods, passages of play, it was fantastic.
“One team have got a proper coach, the other team has a sporting director, which isn’t right for Manchester United.”
