60 Tuesday April 5 2022 | the timesSport
The former deputy cabinet secretary
can’t “personally” lobby government
on the Premier League’s behalf until
March 2023 under the rules of the
Office of the Advisory Committee on
Business Appointments, which cleared
the former civil servant to take up the
Premier League role in January 2021.
MacNamara has impeccable contacts
across government and told the com-
mittee that she “will be responsible for
the strategy that the PL take towards
government in general”.
The committee vouched for her “per-
sonal integrity”. In the battle to come
between the league and government
over the regulator, MacNamara will be
an invaluable adviser for Masters.ongoing and a decision for the club to make
between Ten Hag, of Ajax, and PSG’s Mauricio
Pochettino as permanent manager. Ten Hag
would bring the regime change, the squad clear-
out, the philosophy and physicality — basically
the coveted mindset.
Everything about United is to do with
mindset. Look at the steadfast fans home and
away, supporting unconditionally, even when
the club, the manager, and the players let them
down. The fans have the mindset.
Of course, it is also all tied in with the owners:
the wretched, money-focused Glazers, and their
mindset of financial collection without
commitment. That attitude seeps through
United. The new manager has to challenge that,
take the club back to basics, to football first. Ten
Hag would be the strong choice if given time
and resources to shred and rebuild a squad
bloated under five managers, to encourage
pressing and physicality, to instil the right
mindset. It’s all about mindset. Rangnick’s good.
But United need more.and engaging. Rangnick resembles a supply
teacher knowing he’s lost an unruly playground.
It’s always about mindset. Paul Pogba
possesses it for France. He just needs the right
club catalyst. People trash the name of United’s
squad, but there are good players there, world
champions such as Pogba and Raphaël Varane,
Euro finalists such as Harry Maguire, who was
in the Uefa team of the tournament, respected
internationals such as David de Gea, and talents
such as Marcus Rashford crying out for an
understanding of his off-field issues and proper
deployment by his manager.
United’s players need proper coaching,
challenging, Contefying. A manager such as
Erik ten Hag can give them that. He could
restore their belief, their appetite for the 50-50
in the Fernandes scenario. Unfortunately,
timidity has become a culture at United in the
near decade since Ferguson left.
For all the derision directed at United, there is
a process ongoing under John Murtough’s caring
stewardship as football director, interviewsplayers run that extra yard? Not really.
Anticipate? Press? Accelerate in transition? Stay
strong in tackles? Stand tall? Not enough.
United’s response in and out of possession is an
embarrassment compared to Manchester City’s
and Liverpool’s. West Ham United give more
than United. That’s not just physicality. That’s
mentality; that’s taking responsibility.
So Rangnick’s spot on: greater sturdiness is
vital, but in mind as well as body. This, of course,
highlights his own deficiencies from the dugout
in contrast to Antonio Conte’s impact on
Tottenham Hotspur. Conte has organised a
hitherto underwhelming group, brought out
steel, given them an identity, shown them a path.
Everyone knows what a Conte team looks
like, as with those sent out by Pep Guardiola,
Jürgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Mikel Arteta
and even, whisper it, David Moyes, the first of
those who failed in Sir Alex Ferguson’s footsteps.
Their teams don’t shirk challenges as
Fernandes did. Everyone knows Conte will be
on the edge of his technical area, instructingHenry Winter
Chief Football Writer
United trapped in Glazers’ mindset
R
alf Rangnick lacks the personality
and tactical ability to manage
Manchester United beyond the
interim but is undeniably worth
listening to as a consultant. The 63-
year-old speaks with sense and honesty, traits
frequently absent in Glazerville. United are
short of “physicality”, the German rightly
argues. More significantly, United crave
robustness in mentality, too. What matters more
is game, mindset and match.
A testament to Rangnick’s concerns came at
Old Trafford on Saturday when one of United’s
bigger stars, Bruno Fernandes, the Portuguese
playmaker recently awarded a lavish new
contract, faded from the fray when faced with
Leicester City’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
storming in for the ball. Fernandes froze.
United threatened a breakaway, Fernandes
advanced down the right on to Fred’s pass until
Dewsbury-Hall arrived, bristling with
physicality, wanting the ball more. And getting
it. And launching the counter that led to
Leicester’s goal. In that significant split second
Fernandes lacked the toughness, the mindset.
Yet post-match, talking to newspaper
reporters, Rangnick contended generally, not
specifically about Fernandes, that: “It is difficult
to change a technically great player into a
physical, aggressive player.”
Really? Cristiano Ronaldo rarely gets knocked
off the ball, nor does Lionel Messi. They’re not
“aggressive” but they’re tenacious. Ronaldo and
Messi shield the ball with their bodies as well as
keep it with their skill. “I do not think it is to do
with mindset, it is to do with the DNA of
players,” Rangnick continued.
But it is a mindset. Fernandes is an
exceptional technical player and, for all his
frequent histrionics and finger-pointing, is not a
shrinking violet. He just should be more
imposing than he is. It’s about mindset, about
taking responsibility, about leadership — a
perennial problem under the Glazers.
Rewind through United’s gilded history and
admire those such as Sir Bobby Charlton with
the stellar technique but also the right mindset:
the same with Duncan Edwards, Denis Law and
George Best and on down the decades with
Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel,
Roy Keane, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Rio
Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney.
Less technically gifted individuals such as
Steve Bruce and Gary Neville, among others,
had that mindset. I once boarded a United flight
back from Istanbul in the 1990s with Phil
Neville calmly picking shards of glass out of his
club blazer. The team bus was bricked on the
way back from the Ali Sami Yen, Galatasaray’s
seething citadel. Phil didn’t flinch. Mindset.
Mindset underpins physicality. Do UnitedRangnick is spot on when he says that United need greater physicality even if he resembles a supply teacher knowing he’s lost an unruly playgroundPETER POWELL/EPAKey role for party rogue
The former director-general of propri-
ety and ethics in the Cabinet Office,
Helen MacNamara, who has reported-
ly been fined £50 over the “Partygate”
scandal, is now effectively No 2 to chief
executive Richard Masters at the
Premier League. Her appointment last
year as director of policy and corporate
affairs, which includes engagement
with fans and charities, had largely
gone under the radar until the “Partyg-
ate” punishments. MacNamara was a
shrewd recruit for Masters given the
issues dealing with government —
especially with the top flight resisting
Tracey Crouch’s call for an independent
regulator to stop English football being
such a financial basket-case.New five-sub rule a boost for Southgate
2-0-1-2-1-3-2-1-2-1-0-1. These are how
many substitutes Pep Guardiola has
used in his past 12 Premier League
games — 16 out of a possible 36. The
only time the Manchester City manag-
er sent on the maximum amount was in
the last 15 minutes of the easy win over
Norwich City to give some experience
to three teenagers: the English pair of
James McAtee and Liam Delap and the
Brazilian Kayky. The instinctive reac-
tion when the Premier League an-
nounced five subs per match from next
season was to bemoan it as a decision
that helps the elite clubs as their
benches are stronger, but the situation
is more nuanced.
Having five subs doesn’t meanGuardiola will use five subs, he just be-
lieves in having the option. Fourteen of
the 20 clubs voted for the change and
their managers, who know best about
players’ workload, had an input. It
brings the Premier League into line
with other leading European divisions
and safeguards against some players
going into the red-zone.
The England manager Gareth
Southgate is in favour, citing strains late
in games, and any change that helps the
national team should be encouraged.
The five subs can be introduced only on
three occasions, but there will still be
some delays so an independent time-
keeper, and the proper reflection of
pure time, is also required.Delap, 19, gets time off the bench in
City’s FA Cup success against Fulham