Ralf Rangnick Manchester United Specials

While much of Ralf Rangnick's time at United over the next seven months will be about steadying the ship, there is no doubt that he is also auditioning for the job as the manager on a full-time basis too. With this in his mind, all attention falls on getting the club back within a Champions League spot at a bare minimum and potentially challenging for the title following a decent draw at Stamford Bridge to the league leaders.

The German is noted for cup runs more than anything else, as he headed to the semi-finals of the Champions League with Schalke, and was ironically knocked out by a Sir Alex Ferguson United side. He also got to the DFB-Pokal final with RB Leipzig only to lose to Bayern Munich, which as we all know, in Germany, is no shame.

Here, Rangnick is priced at 7/1 to get United into the top four by Christmas, for which they are currently five points off West Ham United, who sit fourth. The Red Devils will meet with fifth-placed Arsenal on Thursday, December 2nd, which may end up being the main match here, as Crystal Palace, Norwich City, Brentford, and Brighton & Hove Albion follow and they should beat those remaining sides.

The club are also priced at 16/1 to finish above Liverpool and Spurs, but the former seems unlikely. A bottom-half finish in 2021/22 and to win 0 trophies is priced at 18/1, while United are also priced at 28/1 to win the league next year and have Cristiano Ronaldo as the league's top scorer.

Rangnick enters United as the interim head coach until the end of the season and following this period, he will continue in a consultancy role for a further two years following the departure of Ed Woodward at the same time. However, surely if Rangnick does a more than adequate job as the step-in manager, there will be no desire to look elsewhere.

Ultimately, it all depends on how well he does and how much the club are desiring him in the consultancy role, which given the state of the club, should be a lot. Nevertheless, Mauricio Pochettino remains the man leading the way on the next United manager odds list at EVENS, with Rangnick at 3/1 while Erik ten Hag sits at 6/1.

We can see Rangnick moving into the role on a permanent basis if he does well because for a man attached to the sport as much as he is, managing a club is surely more appealing than the consultancy role. Only time will tell here.

The German is responsible for being one of the first notable visionaries of gegenpressing, something we have seen brought to life in the Premier League under Jurgen Klopp. So, with this in mind, there is set to be an interesting January transfer window in order to bring this to Old Trafford.

One man who is unlikely to be a part of such a dramatic change in style is Anthony Martial, and the Frenchman, in truth, likely already has one foot out of the club after two years of disastrous form now. Martial will not be a go-to man for Rangnick and odds are now at 4/1 for the forward to leave in January.

Donny van de Beek is also listed here at 2/1, while Pogba is too at 9/1. It's doubtful we'll see Pogba depart during an injury-ridden period for him, especially as he is out of contract in the summer. As for van de Beek, the only way we see him departing is if Rangnick also doesn't want him as much as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn't, which we doubt. In fact, you can expect a versatile, hard-working individual like the Dutchman to get more game time than he ever has at United here.

With an emphasis on a much-needed defensive midfielder likely on Rangnick's mind too, the club are now priced at 3/1 to sign either Declan Rice or Kalvin Phillips in January, which looks incredibly unlikely given the United-Leeds relationship and how Rice is flying with the Hammers.

So far, United are actually unbeaten post-Ole following a professional 2-0 win away to Villarreal and a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. Michael Carrick was in charge for these two games, and in reality, he had a right to be disappointed by the draw in Chelsea after a controversial Jorginho penalty was converted.

Arsenal (H), Crystal Palace (H), Norwich (A), Brentford (A) are the next four games for Rangnick, however, there is a race against time to get him in the dugout for the visit of Mikel Arteta's men due to quarantine rules. Arsenal are in sensational form and it is set to be an almighty clash in midweek, while the visit of Palace is also set to be tough with them not losing at Old Trafford since 2017.

The trip to Norwich simply cannot be a defeat given their situation down in the drop zone, while Brentford's form is topsy-turvy following their victory over Rafael Benitez moving them up to 12th and only two points off United.