Darren Fletcher insists his presence in the Manchester United dugout is a consequence of the 'transition process' after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked as manager in November.
Fletcher's role as technical director has been questioned due to his matchday role in assisting interim manager Ralf Rangnick, a duty not synonymous with technical directors.
During Solskjaer's last match as manager in the 4-1 defeat at Watford, Fletcher was in the dugout and passing on tactical instructions, which was raised by a supporter on the last fans' forum in December.
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Solskjaer was dismissed the following day and Michael Carrick left after a 10-day stint as caretaker manager on December 1. Fellow first-team coach Kieran McKenna then accepted the job of Ipswich Town manager in mid-December and was joined by Martyn Pert.
Fletcher was appointed technical director in March but still assisted in training sessions at Carrington but the Scot has attributed his new responsibilities to the exodus of coaches. “With Ralf and his staff coming in, and Michael and Kieran choosing to move on, we had a quick transition process, so part of my role has been to assist with that, both on the training pitch and during games," Fletcher told the fans' forum.
"I guess that’s been the most visible part for me this season, but that’s really an addition to my overall technical director role.
"Probably the key part of the role is taking a holistic view of the path for players from our academy to our first-team. That pipeline of academy talent is a massive part of who we are as a club.
"Anthony [Elanga] has done brilliantly since he broke into the first team, and Hannibal Mejbri has also been more involved in the squad. Our U19s recently finished top of their group in the UEFA Youth League, and our U18s have reached the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup.
"I’m workng closely with Nick Cox, as head of academy, to look at the long-term strategy for bringing players through. We have to manage the balance between allowing them to develop and creating the right steps for that, without piling the pressure onto them.
"Along with Nick, I’m looking at how we best use the loan system to give academy players invaluable experience at other clubs. We currently have 13 young players and academy products on loan and playing regularly in other divisions or leagues.
"Hopefully we’ll see players like Brandon Williams, Teden Mengi, Jimmy Garner, Ethan Laird, Tahith Chong, and Amad Diallo reap the benefits of that. All of them are doing really well on loan and we’re excited to bring them back in pre-season to see how they fare with our first-team players.
"It’s been a brilliant experience since I took on the role and the combination of long-term planning and contributing to our strategic goals, with the opportunity to still be close to the team and management, makes it a unique role."
Fletcher also defended set-piece coach Eric Ramsay. United went more than a year without any of their players scoring from a corner until Harry Maguire headed in at Leeds last month.
"People only give the one narrative about scoring from set-pieces," Fletcher protested. "The biggest reason Eric was brought in was because we were conceding too many goals from set-pieces.
"We have really improved our defending from set-pieces and wide free-kicks this season. Eric is a fantastic coach."`
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