Ex-Man Utd coach Rene Meulensteen tells Ralf Rangnick the Red Devils have lost their DNA

Former Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen believes the Reds have lost their DNA.

Meulensteen, the Dutchman who was part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s backroom staff for 12 years either side of a brief spell as boss of Danish club Brondby, reckons United are still to recover from the shock of seeing their greatest-ever manager step away into retirement in 2013.

He says subsequent managers like David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick have wasted the legacy left to them by Ferguson.

“It says enough that the club has never won the championship since then,’’ said Meulensteen, who spent the last six years of his time at Old Trafford as first-team coach until leaving with Ferguson when United won the last of their 13 Premier League titles.

“The worst part is that United have completely lost their identity. Everything Ferguson had built up over the years has been thrown overboard. United had their own way of playing, they played in an attractive, creative way. But that recognizable United football is gone.

“If you want to be successful it is important to have continuity in your vision and a solid, stable organisation. United no longer have either of those things, while Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City with Pep Guardiola do have that stability. You can see that in their successes.”

Moyes has since admitted it was a mistake to bring in his own personnel to replace Ferguson’s staff when he arrived to succeed the Scot.

Meulensteen believes Ferguson should have been given licence to remain as a guiding hand behind the scenes despite stepping away from the main job after 26 years at the helm.

“There were two options,” he said in an interview with Dutch newspaper De