It’s easy to write off Michael Carrick’s work at Man Utd due to the interim tag, but Ralf Rangnick knows it’s not so easy to thrive in that role.
Among the players at Man Utd, Harry Maguire is someone who enjoyed some of his lowest days under Ralf Rangnick and his highest days currently under Michael Carrick.
He is better placed than most to provide insight into why Rangnick failed spectacularly, where Carrick is flying high.
After ten games under Carrick, Maguire has found the reason why Carrick avoided falling into the interim trap that doomed Rangnick.
Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick.
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Harry Maguire on Ralf Rangnick vs Michael Carrick
Carrick’s tactical ideas haven’t received enough credit, but it also can’t be argued against that being a former player of the club has helped him.
Having said that, the players had plenty to play for when Rangnick arrived as the interim manager, and they had plenty to play for again when Carrick arrived.
Then what explains such a drastic change in the fortunes of the two interim coaches? According to Maguire, the responsibility is being wrongly shifted.
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Speaking to The Athletic, Maguire said that the players are taking responsibility under Carrick that they often didn’t under the German.
He said: “We were all over the place, the back six months of that season. It wasn’t to do with Ralf, it was more to do with how we as players and as a squad handled it.
“I just felt like we didn’t handle it as well as we should have with an interim manager coming in, compared to how we’ve handled it this time under Michael.”
Maguire’s admission is damning, but also endorses Carrick
For Maguire to admit that the players didn’t handle the presence of an interim manager confirms a key theory among Man Utd fans.
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Harry Maguire celebrates scoring for Manchester United.
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It has long been theorised that the dressing room at Old Trafford used to be complicated and prone to throwing managers under the bus.
They might not have done it intentionally, but once they realised they didn’t want to work with Rangnick, they stopped putting in maximum effort.
It’s damning for the players, but also an endorsement for Carrick, who generated immediate buy-in from his players the moment he walked through the Carrington doors.
In fact, the performances against Man City and Arsenal in his first two games were some of the finest football United have played since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
The players are to blame, but Rangnick clearly didn’t have enough to take the dressing room by the scruff of its neck and put his foot down to generate buy-in.
Maguire, the model professional he is, absolves the German of all responsibility. In reality, neither party comes out of the episode looking good.
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