Ralf Rangnick arrives at Manchester United as interim manager until the end of the season with the club currently eighth in the Premier League, five points adrift of West Ham and Arsenal in fourth and fifth respectively and facing a huge game against Mikel Arteta’s side at Old Trafford on Thursday.
Here Telegraph Sport takes a look at Rangnick’s bulging in-tray at Old Trafford after being tasked with saving United’s season in the wake of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking after seven defeats from his final 13 matches in charge.
Address Maguire’s form and keep Varane fit
Maguire missed Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea through suspension after his sending off against Watford for two bookable offences marked a new low in a calamitous five weeks for the United captain. There were signs of improvement in the midweek Champions League win over Villarreal and Rangnick will need to restore Maguire’s confidence quickly ahead of a hectic period of games as he targets a top four finish and Champions League qualification. Raphael Varane has missed all but two of United’s past nine matches during this woeful run and his absence has been keenly fit. The Frenchman is due back soon and Rangnick, who has long prided himself on a strong injury prevention record, will hope to keep his best centre-half fit for the remainder of the campaign. After the 2018/19 season with RB Leipzig, Rangnick said: “In top class football it’s about avoiding injuries and about precautionary treatments so that injuries don’t happen at all.
“In the last three weeks of our season after playing 56 competitive games, we didn’t have a single injured player in the whole team, and this was due to the massive job all our physios and the whole medical department had done in the months before.”
Harness Ronaldo’s talents
Michael Carrick’s decision to drop Ronaldo against Chelsea has only intensified the debate about how Rangnick, a staunch advocate of a high energy, intense pressing game, plans to accommodate the five-time World Player of the Year in his side, even if Sunday’s omission had nothing to do with the new interim manager. At 36, Ronaldo cannot play every match but any omission is likely to generate headlines given his unique standing in the game, goal output (10 in 15 matches since his return to Old Trafford) and the pressure to play a man signed on a £40 million annual contract. Solskjaer never established a cohesive framework that allowed Ronaldo to flourish at the same time as giving United a solid platform from which to defend and attack and Rangnick will be tasked with finding a swift solution.
