Erik ten Hag has done what Ralf Rangnick failed to do at Manchester United

Erik ten Hag knows what it takes to win at Manchester United.

As a manager in the Premier League, success buys you time. It's a results business and even the silkiest football in the world will not elongate your stay if you fail to win football matches.

So as the full-time whistle blew in the capital back in mid-August, a sense of dread was present among the fanbase. Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal all awaited Ten Hag's side and the statisticians were already checking the history books for the worst start United had ever made to a season.

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They need not have bothered, for one very simple reason: Ten Hag knows that adaptability is key to surviving in the Premier League. Something that his predecessor could not quite get to grips with.

The less said about Ralf Rangnick's time at Old Trafford the better. It was a disastrous six-month spell at the club that saw the German depart after 28 games, leaving with a win rate of just 39%.

United's former interim manager did accept his share of the blame. Speaking ahead of his final game in charge at the club, he said: "I should have done better. I expected that me and my coaching staff could have developed this team in a more sustainable kind of way. We couldn’t and it’s not only the players who should be blamed, it should be ourselves. We all could and should’ve done better."

Rangnick conceded that he had to change his intended style of play only a handful of games into his spell in Manchester, as he claimed that the team were not fit enough to adopt a high-intensity pressing system. Being able to recognise a flaw is one thing, successfully doing something about it is