‘The cohesion in the club was next to ZERO’: Man United problems discovered by Ralf Rangnick are laid bare by his mentee, ex-Leeds boss Jesse Marsch, who says the club’s ‘identity has been LOST’

Jesse Marsch has exposed the cultural problems his mentor Ralf Rangnick faced at Manchester United, saying there was ‘no cohesion’ between different parts of the club.

The American coach, who was in charge of Leeds United for a year, worked as Rangnick’s assistant at RB Leipzig and describes the Austrian as his ‘professor’.

Rangnick was interim manager of Man United in the 2021/2022 season following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but struggled to make any impact.

Marsch told it Simon Jordan’s Up Front show he heard first-hand from Rangnick and others how far things had gone downhill at Old Trafford.

These are exactly the kind of problems that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have promised to tackle following their £1.3 billion investment in the club.

The Austrian served as United’s interim coach for the second half of the 2021/2022 season

‘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 huge opportunity for everyone,” Marsch said.

‘He didn’t play classic Ralf Rangnick football, I was a bit surprised about that.

“He had the feeling early on that it wouldn’t be easy to play the kind of football he wanted with that group of players.”

After Jordan suggested standards at United had ‘deteriorated dramatically’ in the decade since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Marsch agreed with his assessment.

“What I heard from Ralf and others who were there at the time is that the cohesion within the club was next to zero,” he said.

‘That their communication with the scouting departments, the sporting departments and the directors made them feel like there probably wasn’t much of a future for them there, which maybe was the case.

‘But again, at 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 well they can be.

“From afar, and from what I’ve heard, that part is 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 place

Rangnick was appointed United’s interim boss in late November 2021, but won just 11 of 31 games in charge as the team finished a lowly sixth in the Premier League with just 58 points – their lowest post-1992 total .

The Austrian did not mince his words when describing United’s many problems.

When they lost 4-0 at Liverpool in April 2022, Rangnick said their arch-rivals were ‘six years ahead’ and later gave a damning assessment.

“You don’t even need glasses to see and analyze where the problems are,” he said later that month.

‘Now it’s about: how do we solve them? It is not enough to make some minor changes – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say this is open heart surgery.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is trying to tackle cultural problems at Old Trafford after his buyout

Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford talk to United boss Erik ten Hag during a visit to Carrington

“If this happens and everyone has realized that this has to happen and if people want to work together, then it makes sense and I believe it won’t take two or three years to change those things. That could happen within a year.’

United decided not to honor the original agreement that Rangnick would continue to work for the club in an advisory role and is now in charge of the Austrian national team.

Erik ten Hag has made limited progress in addressing these problems. He oversaw a successful first season in which United finished third in the Premier League and won the Carabao Cup, their first trophy for six years.

But United have deteriorated alarmingly this season and currently sit eighth in the standings, some nine points off the top four.

They also crashed out of Europe after a disastrous Champions League group stage and had their Carabao Cup defense ended by Newcastle in the fourth round.

Ratcliffe’s purchase of a 25 percent 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 has already started working behind the scenes at Old Trafford and is carrying out a thorough review of the way the club is operating.