United isn’t an impossible job, they just need a decent coach
MANCHESTER UNITED is becoming the impossible job, according to Patrice Evra. You may have heard that one before. England used to be the impossible job, remember. Then Gareth Southgate came along.
Oldham. That looks pretty impossible right now. Maybe Newcastle, although that will change. derby, too. But Manchester United? Are you kidding? The club that left Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench on Sunday? The club that could not find room in the starting line-up for Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood or donny van de Beek?
That is waiting for Paul Pogba, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Raphael Varane to come back from injury or suspension? Impossible? That they should currently reside in eighth place might be; or that they are two points behind Wolves. Yet Ralf Rangnick (below) left permanent employment for a temporary managerial position for one simple reason: because any coach with the slightest self-regard looks at Manchester United and licks his lips.
They are a fabulously wealthy club with every competitive advantage and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League guaranteed. Come fourth — five points away, with 25 games remaining — and they’ll be pathetically grateful. And that’s beyond capability?
‘You need to play the United way and win,’ said Evra. ‘It’s an almost impossible job.’ No, it isn’t. Every league champion in recent memory has combined winning football and a recognisable style. Even Leicester, even
Chelsea with managers as disparate as Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, or Manchester City with Roberto Mancini and Pep Guardiola. We can argue that United’s squad lacks balance or has weak areas, but many of their players would walk into any Premier League team bar three. Lingard played 16 games for West Ham and returns there to the sort of reception traditionally reserved for Sir Geoff Hurst. And this is the club United need to hunt down in fourth? The one where Lingard would be considered among their best players — and he can’t even get in United’s team? If Rangnick is as good as advertised, then coaching is not an impossibility. And that is what United need, just as England did, in the days when they lost direction under managers such as Graham Taylor. A documentary was made about those times. Its title? The Impossible Job.
Yet it did not seem impossible for Terry Venables, who followed Taylor. And it hasn’t proved impossible for the clear-thinking Southgate, whose semi-final and final finishes have been England’s best tournament performances since 1966. Why? Good coaching and good players. It’s not an easy job, but it’s not futile.
Nor is what awaits Rangnick. He will not have much time to prepare for Thursday’s meeting with Arsenal, if that is to be his first game, and Manchester United blew the chance to make a change during the international break. Now he’s approaching a month in which matches come in torrents. So, no, not perfect. But not impossible.