Jamie Carragher has backtracked on his claim that Manchester United had made a "positive step" by appointing Ralf Rangnick in the aftermath of their hammering at Liverpool.
The Reds scored four unanswered goals at Anfield on Tuesday to deal their second humiliation of the season to United. Jurgen Klopp's side had already claimed a 5-0 win at Old Trafford earlier in the season and backed that up with another convincing victory in the reverse fixture.
That result in the match in Manchester spelled the beginning of the end for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's reign as manager. After a two-game caretaker spell from Michael Carrick, Rangnick was drafted in as interim boss.
The appointment of the German was praised by Carragher when it was announced in November. The Liverpool icon had branded the move as a "positive step" from a club that was enduring a downturn in fortunes.
“I think the appointment of who it looks like they’re going to bring in is a positive step in terms of how he wants the football played now the top teams all play that way. The way this guy wants his teams to play going back 20 years since he started coaching so I think it’s positive," he told Sky Sports at the time.
“Nobody has to play the same way but top level football is played like that. United were a million miles away from that. I think this guy is coming in, Ralf Rangnick will make sure United get in the Champions League next season.
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“But the biggest job he has it to identify the next coach his role will be taking away from the people at the top and they will take advice from him. He will want the next coach to be in his mould.”
But Carragher appears to have backtracked on that analysis, with Rangnick's time as boss entering its final month. The Liverpool legend was withering in his criticism of United's performance at Anfield on Tuesday, slamming them as "awful".
“Where Manchester United are right now, that was me in a Liverpool shirt, trying to challenge Manchester United when they were top dogs. They had the manager, they had the squad, they had everything covered and we were just trying to hang onto their coattails," he told Sky Sports.
“But what I saw there today, certainly in that first half, what I saw in that first game at Old Trafford, I don’t think we ever stooped that low. We got some doings off Manchester United – they were better than us – but we still had something about us, a personality, a character.
“We still won trophies in unbelievable circumstances when we weren’t one of the best teams. I couldn’t imagine this Manchester United team doing something out of the ordinary like an Istanbul or winning an FA Cup when they shouldn’t.
“This Manchester United, yes they’re awful, but this is one of the most expensively assembled squads in the history of the game, right up there with Manchester City. If you [Gary Neville] were playing now for that Manchester United team – I’m not even talking about [] Giggs or [Paul] Scholes – you wouldn’t allow that to happen."
