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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
James Findlater

Former Ralf Rangnick player urges Manchester United fans to show patience with 'great man'

Manchester United fans have been told to stay patient with Ralf Rangnick due to the interim manager not having the time to introduce a new style at the club.

The reaction to Rangnick’s time in charge so far has been mixed, with results having picked up since his arrival, but performances not necessarily following the same pattern.

Nevertheless, the weekend’s win over West Ham took Rangnick's side into fourth heading into the winter break, with United facing a major battle to secure a Champions League spot for next season.

Rangnick is, of course, in charge until the end of the season, with United working to find a permanent appointment beyond that before the campaign finishes.

And with no new signings expected before the end of the January transfer window, the German will likely have to try and keep the momentum going from recent wins, which have boosted their top-four hopes after they looked to be slipping away.

And former Leicester defender Christian Fuchs — who spent a short period of time playing under Rangnick at Schalke — insists Rangnick needs to be afforded more time and patience.

“He’s a great man. It’s always difficult at a club like Manchester United when nothing counts other than winning,” Fuchs told GGRecon.

“Manchester United’s performances have dipped now for a couple of years so you can’t just assume that one person is going to come in and fix everything overnight. It’s a process.

“People cannot just assume that a manager can come in and be at the top of the league the next day. It doesn’t work like that.

“Right now for Ralf it’s all about winning. He doesn’t have the time to introduce a style that would be better to implement in pre-season.

“If you start in June before pre-season then you’d probably have more patience with the players, but because he was appointed midseason it’s all about winning and qualifying for the Champions League so there won’t be any patience.

“As a manager, you come with new ideas, a new philosophy and it may just be a couple of tweaks, but you have to understand that this might not happen overnight. Overnight a team isn’t going to be 100 per cent changed. For players and managers, getting to know each other's ways just takes time.

“Ralf has had some wins which I think is something you can expect, but one thing you can’t expect is for a new manager to win everything when they’ve taken over midseason. It doesn’t work like that.”

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