Paul Scholes has slammed the appointment of interim manager Ralf Rangnick in the wake of Manchester United ’s last 16 exit to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
The Red Devils suffered a narrow defeat to the reigning La Liga champions, with Renan Lodl’s first-half header sealing Atletico’s place in the quarter-finals. The loss means that United are all but certain to miss out on qualifying for next season’s edition of the competition.
Rangnick was selected to take charge of the club until the end of the season following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with the German set to move into a consultancy role when that reign ends. But Scholes believes that the decision to bring in the former RB Leipzig sporting director was a major error.
“It comes from leadership. It comes from a coach demanding that from his players and gets that from his players. I don’t want to keep having a go at Ralf Rangnick, he seems really nice and comes across well in interviews, he’s very honest,” he told BT Sport.
“But, how he was chosen to be manager of this club for six months until the end of the season, I’ll never know. The coach is a massive part of it. This isn’t a terrible group of players. I think if you give this group of players a structure and way of playing, there’s some real talent in the squad.
“They’re not as talented as the teams above them (in the Premier League ), we know that. But, the very first thing this club needs to do, to get anywhere near winning the league again, is get a proper coach.
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“Get a coach that suits the players, give them two or three years to build a squad of players that will challenge. Getting a proper coach for this team is a massive thing. There's some real talent in this squad.”
But while Scholes believes that United should be able to appoint whoever they want as their next manager, fellow club legend Rio Ferdinand believes the scale of the task will be off-putting to elite bosses. The former defender also believes that any potential boss United would want to appoint are already with clubs.
“There’s so much work to be done. I understand what Man United means to us, the emblem, it means so much. But, if you’re looking to come here, it’s a great project to be a part of, but I think managers might look at others clubs because there’s less pressure, the spotlight isn’t on them as much,” he said.
“I think behind the scenes the club will be doing their work in trying to find the next person for that hot seat. It’s not easy. The managers you probably want are all in jobs. But that’s part of football, you’ve got to find the right person.
“The Atletico team had a group of reliable men that would go out there and do whatever the manager has asked them. They understood the job at hand and worked together as a team. Whereas, United are all looking at each other wondering ‘who’s going to pull a magic trick out of the hat? Who’s going to pull us out of danger? Ronaldo did it at the weekend but who’s next?’”
