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31st December 2024
02:39pm GMT
Ralf Rangnick famously stated - in his last press conference as Man United interim boss after taking over from Ole Gunner Solskjaer - that the club needed "open-heart surgery".
Before Erik ten Hag took over, he said: "You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are.
"Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things.
"In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart. If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year."
The Austrian revisited his claims back in September and said that he had been proven correct. Although given the spending under Ten Hag, and the changes brought in by Jim Ratcliffe, it would seem that there has been 'open-heart surgery' at the club, yet the Red Devils continue to falter.
Following Man United's 2-0 Premier League loss to Newcastle yesterday - which came after heavy defeats to both Bournemouth and Wolves - club legend Rio Ferdinand said that the team and new manager Ruben Amorim need to continue to take the advice of Rangnick.
He said: "You look at Man United yesterday, wow.
"It was an absolute disgrace, in terms of the ability of the opposition team Newcastle to play the ball in straight lines or in one or two, three passes, right through our team and to be right up against our back three or five.
"It shows you there is no understanding or an idea in this team of how to press.
"It just flips me back to Rangnick. Ralf Rangnick said this needed open-heart surgery, not a quick fix, open-heart surgery it needs.
"He weren't wrong, how true are those words ringing now?
"He was so right, and I think Amorim is sitting there behind closed doors and be saying the same thing, and he said 'our club needs a shock'. He didn't go as far as saying open-heart surgery, but he went 'our club needs a shock'."
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