Ralf Rangnick was absolutely spot on with comments over Manchester United injury problems

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Manchester United brought Ralf Rangnick to the club to lead a strategic review of the club, but confined his role to just interim manager.

The Ralf Rangnick era won’t be remembered fondly at Manchester United. It was a bizarre spell, a square peg shoved into a round hole.

Rangnick’s strengths lay behind the scenes, with recruitment, with improving the structure of the club, and he never got the chance to contribute to any of this.

He was taken on as interim manager and ushered out the door immediately as the 2021/22 season came to an end. His planned role as strategic consultant never got started.

New boss Erik ten Hag wanted to do things his way, and right now it looks like he could have done with some help, from a man who knew exactly what the club needed to sort out.

READ: Confirmed Manchester United transfers in, out, loans, releases, youth for 2023/24

Ralf Rangnick warned Manchester United over injuries

Ralf Rangnick wanted Manchester United to sign a talented cabal of players, with Julian Alvarez and Luis Diaz among those he recommended to the club, per Goal.

One of the issues he called out was one which is currently plaguing manager Erik ten Hag; injuries.

Speaking in April 2022, Rangnick questioned why his players were persistently unavailable, calling for an internal investigation at the club.

He said: “This is also an issue that worries me a little bit, the number of injuries that we currently have.

“If I compare to Liverpool, even though they are still competing in four competitions, I think they have no injury problems at all. We only play in the Premier League and we have five, six players injured. This is also an issue that needs to be taken care of for the future. To analyse why is that the case, why does that happen?”

One month into the 2023/24 season, Manchester United have a horrific injury list which saw just five defenders available. Three goalkeepers were on the bench against Bayern last night, amid a lack of outfield options.

It’s a problem which may be partly down to bad luck, however, Rangnick suggested there may be more to it than that. We will never know if the club actually heeded his advice and investigated the root cause.

Manchester United are trying to solve the problem

Manchester United did make a key hire in this department, bringing in Gary O’Driscoll as head of sports medicine, from Arsenal.

While this was first revealed earlier in the summer, Training Ground Guru reported he only started his job on Monday September 18.

He has a lot to do, and United staff will be keen for him to find ways to ease the injury list and prevent it from growing, and find answers to the questions Ralf Rangnick was asking.