Manchester United coach needs to take a new approach with players

When Ralf Rangnick added Sascha Lense to his coaching staff in early December he was effusive about the benefits the relatively unknown German could bring.

Lense arrived as a sports psychologist but is often on the training pitches at Carrington and was appointed as part of Rangnick's coaching staff, a distinction made explicit on his arrival.

The duo worked together at Schalke and RB Leipzig and Rangnick knew the value that Lense could add as he sought to imprint his own ideals on the Manchester United players in a shorter timeframe than he would usually get.

Rangnick was surprised he arrived at a club that didn't have a sports psychologist already in place - and hadn't had one for nigh on two decades since Bill Beswick left Old Trafford.

When Rangnick was asked in his next press conference why Lense had been brought in, he reeled off the marginal gains he felt he could offer.

"It’s about gaining confidence and believing in the way we are playing. The players have to buy in. I can tell them whatever I want but I need to convince them. I need to get into their heart, into their brains, into their blood," he said.

"For me it is absolutely logical. I even had someone like this back in 1998 in Dortmund. For me it is a question of logic. If you have special coaches for goalkeeping, physical education, even for strikers, fitness, whatever, you should also have an expert for the brain.

"It’s not so much putting them on the red sofa and holding hands for the players because most of them won’t do that anyway.

"For me it is about helping the players that the brain should assist the body not to work against it. The players and everybody in our team should think in the right way.

"Whenever we speak about football we know that