When Ralf Rangnick added Sascha Lense to his coaching staff in early December he was effusive about the benefits the relatively unknown German could bring.
Lense arrived as a sports psychologist but is often on the training pitches at Carrington and was appointed as part of Rangnick's coaching staff, a distinction made explicit on his arrival.
The duo worked together at Schalke and RB Leipzig and Rangnick knew the value that Lense could add as he sought to imprint his own ideals on the Manchester United players in a shorter timeframe than he would usually get.
Rangnick was surprised he arrived at a club that didn't have a sports psychologist already in place - and hadn't had one for nigh on two decades since Bill Beswick left Old Trafford.
When Rangnick was asked in his next press conference why Lense had been brought in, he reeled off the marginal gains he felt he could offer.
"It’s about gaining confidence and believing in the way we are playing. The players have to buy in. I can tell them whatever I want but I need to convince them. I need to get into their heart, into their brains, into their blood," he said.
"For me it is absolutely logical. I even had someone like this back in 1998 in Dortmund. For me it is a question of logic. If you have special coaches for goalkeeping, physical education, even for strikers, fitness, whatever, you should also have an expert for the brain.
"It’s not so much putting them on the red sofa and holding hands for the players because most of them won’t do that anyway.
"For me it is about helping the players that the brain should assist the body not to work against it. The players and everybody in our team should think in the right way.
"Whenever we speak about football we know that the major part is up here. What do you think, how do you analyse the situation?
"I’m very happy to have Sascha on board. He is not working too much on the theory, he is hands-on. Having worked together at Leipzig I know we will benefit a lot. For me it is vital that we should have the best possible person on this job."
Two months into his time at Carrington how do we assess Lense's influence? It's clear that confidence has been restored to some United players.
Jadon Sancho was always earmarked as a likely beneficiary from Rangnick's arrival and he's now beginning to flourish. He's looked United's best player against Middlesbrough and Burnley and at Turf Moor he played with a swagger that hadn't yet been seen in a United shirt.
In terms of getting the players to buy into Rangnick's philosophy, there has also been some success. Perhaps the most frustrating element of the disappointing results against Boro and Burnley is that those two games have seen the attacking play finally click into gear.
In both matches, United have attacked with pace and purpose, with their wingers carrying the ball forward, the midfielders looking for quick, vertical passes and plenty of chances being created.
But this is where we come to the next area for Lense to tackle. If he's had some success with players individually, it's clear United's collective mental strength has to be stronger. For a squad with such glittering individual CVs, the team is lacking resilience.
After a dozen games in charge, this looks more like a Rangnick team. They haven't become pressing monsters and it's clear those ideals have been dialled back a little, but United are winning the ball back more often and in better areas than under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Over the last week, the attack has started to click.
But those improvements aren't enough if the team's collective confidence remains brittle. The combination of missing chances and then conceding to one of the first opportunities given up has derailed United against Middlesbrough and Burnley.
Last month they also failed to see out a winning position against Aston Villa. These aren't particularly onerous fixtures compared to what is on the schedule for March.
The common factor in these games is that when United have conceded their response has been poor, something that has been a problem all season. When the body blows arrive the character isn't there to regroup. At Turf Moor United finally reasserted control for the final 10 minutes or so, but by then it was too late.
Rangnick must be perplexed at watching his side execute his game plan only to find increasingly frustrating ways not to win. This is where he needs Lense to start working overtime. Rangnick wants the "brain to assist the body", but at the moment it doesn't feel like they're working in unison for United's players.
