How did Ralf Rangnick become popular with Manchester United fans, despite overseeing horrendous results during his reign? The answer is simple: his press conferences. Rangnick has always been an articulate, intelligent and engaging speaker and the manner in which he spoke during his interim tenure was different to other Premier League managers, who say the right things.
Rangnick managed to cut through the noise after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked and his press conferences often made for excellent headlines, while fans also appreciated his approach because it brought the club's problems into the light.
The German was brutally honest when answering questions from journalists, but arguably his most memorable comment was made in April 2022, when he was asked what United would have to do to become genuine title contenders again.
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“You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are,” Rangnick said. “Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine, you would say that this is an operation of the open heart.
“If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.
“For sure [strong leadership is needed]. This is something that not just one single person as a manager can do. With all respect to Jürgen [Klopp] and Pep [Guardiola] I’m sure that they didn’t do all the things themselves [at Liverpool and Manchester City].”
Although Rangnick had a contract to continue as a consultant for the next two years after his interim spell, he departed from the club shortly after that press conference, with Erik ten Hag coming in and gaining full control as manager.
If Rangnick was right in suggesting the club needed 'open-heart surgery' to improve, Ten Hag should be considered a miracle healer. The wider problems around the ownership remain, of course, but the Dutchman has transformed United's fortunes on the pitch.
Ten Hag spent over £200m in the summer, which obviously helped, but he's improved the majority of the squad and the difference in some players, particularly Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw, has been remarkable and a testament to his coaching.
Among the many problems at the club last season, the defensive record needed urgent attention, as United conceded 57 goals in the Premier League and 12 teams, including relegated Burnley, managed to concede fewer across the campaign.
The defence was a major problem whereas now it's a major strength. The appointment of Ten Hag has been a masterstroke and so was the signing of Lisandro Martinez, who has helped to change the mentality and improve the backline.
Martinez has developed a formidable partnership with Raphael Varane this term, Ten Hag is getting the best out of Shaw and Diogo Dalot in the full-back positions and even Aaron Wan-Bissaka has looked like a capable deputy when playing.
That has all contributed to the defence going from one of the worst in the Premier League to one of the best in Europe.
United have recorded 15 clean sheets this season across all competitions, which is the same as Barcelona, and only Newcastle (16) - who also look set to make the League Cup final - from Europe's top five leagues have actually managed to keep more.
The defence was hopelessly porous last season, but it has been unrecognisable following the appointment of Ten Hag.
That improvement also might not have been possible without Martinez, who has been outstanding.
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