'It has to be in the DNA of a player.'
Ralf Rangnick questioned the 'DNA' of his Manchester United players following their 1-1 draw against Leicester City on Saturday evening at Old Trafford.
The interim boss is contracted to take up a consultancy role from the end of the season. He said it could take 18 months for the club to fix the 'DNA' issue which currently exists within the squad.
Ajax boss Erik ten Hag and PSG head coach Mauricio Pochettino are frontrunners for the manager's job at Old Trafford. Rangnick could be involved in the rebuild of the Man United squad, as he is due to take up a consultancy role at the end of the season.
Ralf Rangnick on the Man United rebuild.
Rangnick referenced United's rivals when discussing the credentials needed to challenge at the top of the Premier League. The German has reiterated the need for one clear philosophy to be coached throughout the club.
The 63-year-old highlighted the need for more physical players to be signed when the new manager is appointed in the summer.
Rangnick said "the situation could be different" in 18 months' time if the club recruits shrewdly in the transfer market.
According to the German coach, the problems besetting United are:
- The Red Devils must sign players according to a specific style of play, as Man City and Liverpool do.
- They must focus on signing physical, aggressive players as he believes the current squad lack those attributes.
- Man United must identify a player's 'DNA' before signing him.
- And they should accept it could take at least three transfer windows to fix their current issues
Ralf Rangnick lists Man United's problems.
"Manchester City and Liverpool… have been built together and recruited over a period of five or six years. All of them under the premise of how the coaches want to play. I told the board this is what has to happen (at United)," Rangnick said at the
post-match press conference.
"Whenever the new head coach is clear, it has to be: how does he want to play and what kind of players do we need for that? Then we come back to DNA, speed, physicality, tempo. What do we need? This team does not lack technical players, it can do with more physicality.
"Maybe in two or three transfer windows, then the situation could be different."
Ralf Rangnick on Man United's lack of physicality.
Rangnick reflected on United dropping two points whilst being second best throughout the game against the Foxes. The draw resulted in United dropping to seventh on the Premier League table.
The interim manager detailed moments where his team lacked physicality against Brendan Rodgers's side.
Rangnick alluded to the 'DNA' in United's team being an issue. The German didn't question his squads' technical ability. However, he believes that the physical aspect of their game has led to lacklustre results.
"Whenever there was body contact, too often we were second best. That is something we have to get better at for the rest of this season but even more so for next season,"
Rangnick added.
"There were quite a few moments where I just felt we could have been more dynamic, more physical, more aggressive, but we weren't.
"It has to be a bit in the DNA of a player, to be honest. It is difficult to challenge a technically great player into a physical, aggressive one and we have a lot of people who are technical players."
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