Ralf Rangnick has failed to achieve his personal target at Manchester United

There was never a belief that great change would be implemented by Ralf Rangnick during his brief spell as interim manager, though given the success of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in an initial caretaker role, it was by no means out of the question to suggest he could have a similar impact.

While Solskjaer's brief had been simply 'to put smiles back on faces' Rangnick had loftier ambitions of being able to revolutionise a side which had fallen way beyond the standards set by their two most fierce rivals.

There was a fresh approach to training, a new tactical approach, and the appointment of a sports psychologist in an attempt to stop the rot.

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But ultimately, the Germans' main target was a far simpler one: to concede fewer goals.

Rangnick identified United's poor defensive record as one of the areas where he felt he could make an immediate improvement, emphasising that keeping clean sheets would be down to the entire backline and not just the heroics of David de Gea.

After the 1-0 win over Norwich in December, he said: “The second half was a little bit better, but in the end we were lucky with a clean sheet and there were two or three clean sheets by David de Gea.

“It’s another clean sheet, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“We have closed the highest number of goals into the top ten. Now we have two clean sheets, which is good, but we still need to improve it, especially against physical teams or teams that attack high, as Norwich did.”

At first, the signs were positive. United kept four clean sheets in their first seven matches under Rangnick and looked to have genuinely turned a corner. However, in the eighth, they let a two-goal lead