Jesse Marsch has laid bare the cultural problems his mentor Ralf Rangnick encountered at Manchester United, saying there was ‘zero cohesion’ between different parts of the club.
The American coach, who spent a year in charge of Leeds United, worked as Rangnick’s assistant at RB Leipzig and describes the Austrian as his ‘professor’.
Rangnick served as Man United’s interim manager in the 2021-22 season following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but struggled to make any impact.
Marsch has told Simon Jordan’s Up Front show he heard first-hand from Rangnick and others how far things had gone downhill at Old Trafford.
They’re precisely the kind of problems Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have vowed to address following their £1.3billion investment in the club.
Jesse Marsch has laid bare the culture Ralf Rangnick encountered at Manchester United
The Austrian served as United’s interim coach for the second half of the 2021-22 campaign
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‘I think he knew he was going into the lion’s den but he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to coach Manchester United. This is a massive opportunity for anyone,’ Marsch said.
‘He didn’t play classic Ralf Rangnick football, that was one thing I was a little bit surprised of.
‘He felt early on that it wasn’t going to be easy with that group of players to play the kind of football that he wanted.’
After Jordan suggested standards had ‘deteriorated dramatically’ at United in the decade since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Marsch agreed with his assessment.
‘What I heard from Ralf and others that were there at the time is that the cohesion in the club was next to zero,’ he said.
‘That their communication with the scouting departments and the sporting departments and the directors and that made them feel there probably wasn’t much of a future for them there, which maybe that was the case.
‘But again with any club and especially the best, this idea of the pressure from within for everyone to understand exactly what the identity is and the commitment to stay disciplined to do that every day is usually what dictates how good they can become.
‘From afar, and from what I’ve heard, that part has been lost at Man U.’
Rangnick and Marsch worked together at RB Leipzig and remain good friends
Rangnick pictured with analyst Ewan Sharp (left) and his assistant coach Chris Armas (right)
United endured a disrupted and torrid season as they finished a lowly sixth in the table
Rangnick was appointed as United’s interim boss in late November 2021 but won just 11 of 31 matches in charge as the team finished a lowly sixth in the Premier League with just 58 points – their lowest post-1992 total.
The Austrian didn’t mince his words when describing United’s many issues.
When they lost 4-0 at Liverpool in April 2022, Rangnick said their arch-rivals were ‘six years ahead’ and later gave a scathing evaluation.
‘You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are,’ he said later that month.
‘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.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is attempting to address the cultural issues at Old Trafford after his buy-out
Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford chat to United boss Erik ten Hag during a Carrington visit
‘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.’
United decided not to honour the original agreement that Rangnick would continue working for the club in an advisory capacity and he is now in charge of Austria’s national side.
Erik ten Hag has made some limited progress in addressing these issues. He oversaw a successful first season, in which United finished third in the Premier League and won the Carabao Cup, their first trophy in six years.
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But United have regressed alarmingly this season, currently sitting eighth in the standings, some nine points off the top four.
They have also crashed out of Europe following a disastrous Champions League group stage campaign and their Carabao Cup defence was ended by Newcastle in the fourth round.
Ratcliffe’s purchase of a 25 per cent stake in United, which will see INEOS take control of football operations at Old Trafford, was confirmed on Christmas Eve, subject to Premier League ratification.
His team have already got to work behind the scenes at Old Trafford and are conducting a root and branch review of how the club operates.
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