Rangnick: We must buy right
four managers and are about to finish below the Blues for a ninth successive season.
And Rangnick said: “It’s about having a clear transfer strategy and signing players who fit into that system – and that’s what both clubs (City and Liverpool) have been doing in the last five or six years.
“If I look at their transfer policy and their transfer success, they haven’t had many players who people would say that maybe that wasn’t the right signing.
“Both clubs have been pretty successful and this is where Manchester United have to go again.
“Under Sir Alex, they were there, but since there have been quite a few managers.
“In order to close the gap to those two clubs, I wouldn’t say we have to do the same thing because we have our own identity as a club.
“But professional football is pretty easy. You have to have an identity on how you want to play and how the supporters want to see us play.
“This has always been attractive, offensive, proactive football, entertaining football.
‘But from there you must make sure the recruitment is right.
“You have to be quick enough, fast enough, in the transfer market, knowing the transfer market and signing the right players in the right moment.
“On top of that, you need the best possible manager and staff who can develop players.”
Rangnick, 63, came in as interim boss when United fired Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November.
He will be involved in the process to identify his successor before moving into an advisory role.
And he accepts that failure to finish in the top four to qualify for the Champions League will have consequences for United’s future plans.
Rangnick added: “Financially, everybody knows what missing the top four would mean.”