Manchester United need a good transfer window if Erik ten Hag is to do what Ralf Rangnick couldn't

When Manchester United appointed the high priest of pressing there was an expectation that by now we would be seeing the fruits of Ralf Rangnick's labour.

There was an acceptance that the turnaround would not be immediate. Rangnick was arriving midway through a congested season and taking over a group of players used to operating on the back foot, but there was still a feeling that he would get there eventually, that there was enough time to see some obvious changes.

In his introductory press conference, the 63-year-old made no secret of his methodology. He said he was "not that far apart from Jurgen [Klopp] in terms of our ideas about a style of football".

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Rangnick knew he couldn't ask the players to deliver things they weren't up to straightaway, but he did reveal what he would like them to become during his interim spell at Carrington.

“I cannot turn the players we have into the pressing monsters I want them to be within two, three or four weeks," he said.

After the passivity of the Solskjaer era, when United were conditioned to play on the counterattack, it was refreshing to think this team were now on the track to adopting a much more modern approach.

But in truth, the closest United came to turning into "pressing monsters" was in Rangnick's first game in charge, the 1-0 win against Crystal Palace. Somewhere along the way, the German has decided that this squad is incompatible with his demands.

To watch United now is to see a team that generally has little interest in pressing at all. Occasionally they take up aggressive positions to try and block passing lanes, but there is little structured pressing going on.

There could be various reasons for that.