6 May 22, 2022The Sunday Times 2GSFootball Premier League
Rangnick was self-criticalshortly after his appointment in
December. Rangnick was keen to
work with him and had not expected
him to quit. With Kieran McKenna
also leaving, to manage Ipswich
Town, the German was left
scrambling for coaching staff.
Stricter work permit regulations
post-Brexit frustrated his efforts to
hire another highly rated coach.
Rangnick found his own status — as a
mere interim — compromised his
ability to change the behaviours of
players. It was not long before
briefings suspected to originate from
the dressing room questioned his
work and that of the coach he did
appoint, Chris Armas, the American.
Losing Mason Greenwood was
another severe blow. Rangnick sawT
he Gods of Football are a
capricious bunch and prone
to much tantalising behav-
iour. They may still deliver us
with a bit of a laugh, but I’m
not sure I’ll hold my breath.
First they dangled hapless
Newcastle United before us
as overwhelmingly likely candidates
for relegation to the Championship.
This was a popular move because
laughing at woebegone Geordies is a
kind of national pastime — and on this
occasion it was given piquancy by the
club having just been taken over by
the totalitarian leaders of a savage
third world sand-blown satrapy. Halal
the lads, as the joke went at the time.
The hugely disliked Steve Bruce
was sacked at the end of October andEddie Howe appointed on November
8, and the Newcastle fans were, as
ever, very expectant. Almost a month
later they were rock bottom of the
division before recording their first
win of the season, a scratchy 1-0
victory at home to fast-falling Burnley.
They still looked odds on for the
drop — but Howe has performed not
much short of a miracle. I cannot
recall a manager having such an
impact on a team in such a short space
of time. Hell, at one point it looked as
if the buggers were going to get into
Europe.
The hitherto ineffectual Brazilian,
Joelinton, had been redeployed as a
box-to-box midfielder, seeing that his
position up front had been about as
fruitful as a Saudi watermelon farm.
This required Joelinton to — for the
first time — run about a bit, which he
did to remarkable effect, gaining him
the player-of-the-season award from
the St James’ Park faithful who had
suddenly, and with good reason,
become very smug.ROD
LIDDLEThe rest of us were left sighing in
disappointment before those Gods
came along and appointed Frank
Lampard as manager of boring, frac-
tious, badly run, nosediving Everton.
Now, Everton going down would in a
sense be even more fun than watching
Newcastle succumb — and for a long
while under Frankie that’s exactly
what looked like happening. The sec-
ond longest-serving team in the top
flight, possessed of a certain sense of
entitlement. Bye-bye Toffees, etc.
For those of us who considered
Lampard’s managerial skills some-
what overrated, his appointment was
a boon and the slide towards the bot-
tom increased in velocity. And then
somehow, it all went wrong — or, if
you’re an Everton fan, very right.
They scrabbled together a bunch of
half-decent results and then went into
Thursday’s game against Crystal Pal-
ace with the confidence that a win
would probably save them. So, the
Gods of Football had me cheering for
the “Nigels” for the first time in my lifeand feeling cheated when the useless
suburban jessies surrendered a
two-goal lead to lose 3-2. Gloom once
again — until those Gods whispered
quietly in our ears: “Leeds United?
How would you fancy that?”
Ah, yes, very much indeed, thank
you. Not least because my team,SACKING THE MANAGER: DID IT
WORK FOR RELEGATION BATTLERS?Not including interim managers in charge for three games or fewerSacked managerPoints per game
Current manager
Burnley
S DycheM Jackson 1.570.8Everton
R BenitezF Lampard 1.181Leeds
M BielsaJ Marsch 1.090.88Newcastle
S BruceE Howe 1.580.38Footballing
Gods have
failed me
so far – but
relegation
for Leeds
would do
nicely
T
he scale of the surgery to
team spirit and culture
required at Manchester
United should become clear
to Erik ten Hag when he
begins appraising himself of
the dressing-room issues
that have crippled
performance at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag starts work as United’s
manager from tomorrow and his first
task is to get to grips with a splintered
playing group, whose lack of unity
and loyalty has astounded some in
senior roles at the club.
The dressing-room problems
involve a key player briefing against
captain Harry Maguire on the eve of a
Manchester derby, significant
differences of opinion in the type of
training United need, players not in
the right frame of mind to play, and a
perception from some in the squad
that others are overly concerned with
their image on social media.
The riven spirit was hinted at by
Juan Mata in The Athletic yesterday —
“We need a reset in the culture of the
club,” he said. Meanwhile, the interim
manager, Ralf Rangnick, pointed to
some of his difficulties when he said in
his pre-match press conference that
United’s season fell away because of
“mentality, team spirit, togetherness.
We just fell short in those areas”.
He added: “The biggest
disappointment is we didn’t manage
to develop a certain team spirit that
helped us in different parts of the
game. This happens to other teams
but, for me, this is the biggest issue.”
Ten Hag will watch United’s final
match of the season, at Crystal Palace
today, having elected to forgo aJonathan Northcroftholiday after leaving Ajax, in order to
give himself as much time as possible
to start remedying United’s flaws.
The key cultural one became clear to
senior management at the club in the
week of the derby in March.
A story appeared stating that
Maguire’s continued selection in the
starting XI was being questioned by
team-mates, who had decided that
his performances had “not met the
club’s standards”. United went on to
be completely dismantled by City in a
spiritless 4-1 defeat and the article
astonished and dismayed members
of the coaching team. They felt the
story — while not in question for its
veracity — was treacherous and had
clearly come from a player, whose
identity was obvious to other players
and staff. They believed the briefer
would have been better served
focusing on his own oscillating form.
There was a difference of opinion
when Rangnick canvassed senior
players for ideas about how to arresta slide in form. One suggested that he
should name his team at the start of
the week, to give him as much time as
possible to spend on tactical drills.
However, another said training
should just be more fun. That same
player showed a distinct antipathy
towards pressing exercises when
Rangnick tried to introduce them.
One of the more solid members of
the squad is known to despair of the
“Instagram players” around him.
Such disunity may have been pointed
to when Scott McTominay said after
defeat at Arsenal that: “We need to
concentrate on what’s happening on
the pitch. We don’t need to worry
about who’s saying what.”
A massive issue for Rangnick was
the departure of Michael Carrick,concerns
Interim had to water down
his high-tempo approach
because of an unwilling,
unsuitable squad – Ten Hag
must change the culture
Rangnick’s
pressing