Rangnick has chance to extend Guardiola’s Manchester United frustrations

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Manchester United go into this weekend’s Manchester derby on the back of a patchy February, where momentum has stuttered if not quite completely evaporated.

It is a fixture which may provoke trepidation but United actually have a good recent record at the Etihad Stadium, and have done throughout Pep Guardiola’s reign.

During his reign as City manager, Guardiola has hosted United six times in all competitions and won just once, a 3-1 Premier League win in November 2018, in the dying embers of Jose Mourinho’s tenure.

Extending that to his whole career, the Spaniard has overcome United on his own patch only twice; the other being a 3-1 Champions League victory for Bayern Munich against David Moyes’ side in April 2014.

Ralf Rangnick has the opportunity to continue those home frustrations this weekend as United look to recover from the 0-0 draw with Watford.

The pair have never faced each other in the dugout before.

The only time they were in Germany at the same time was in the 2015-16 season, when Guardiola was at Bayern and Rangnick was at RB Leipzig.

But Leipzig were still in the second tier as an emerging force then and that means that the duo did not cross paths.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had success at the Etihad by defending very deep and compact before using United’s pace on the counter attack to exploit City’s high press and high line.

That is not necessarily the proactive, brave style that many United fans would like to see their side use in the very biggest games against their local rival, but it did tend to work on the road.

Of course, the Norwegian was comprehensively outmanoeuvred in the league meeting earlier this season when City won 2-0 but could have scored many more.

Now, the challenge for Rangnick is plugging the gaps and keeping it tight but also ensuring United keep a threat.

And Guardiola being Guardiola, he will be aware of his poor home record against United and poring over stats and videos to try and change it.

He could well overthink it, which would play into Rangnick and United’s hands, but the focus on the red half of town has to be improving the levels since the last meeting and showing how much has changed in the intervening months.