On the pitch, Ralf Rangnick’s start to life in the Manchester United dugout has gone rather well.
In three games the Red Devils are unbeaten, picking up six points in the Premier League and earning a point in the Champions League with a much-changed squad.
But off it, there have been some considerable and unexpected barriers the German has been forced to encounter.
In just over three weeks since his appointment, United have seen a pair of league games postponed following an outbreak of Covid-19 within his squad.
First of all the trip to Brentford was cancelled, before the home clash with Brighton suffered the same fate.
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Reports have subsequently revealed that Rangnick was facing a situation where he would have been able to call upon just nine players for the game against the Bees and then only seven against Brighton, with the situation worsening in the days between the two fixtures.
United’s Carrington training ground has also been closed for over a week, with the hope that players could return on Tuesday as long as the latest batch of tests are negative.
However, more than a week away from his new charges means that Rangnick has been unable to continue to change the culture under his leadership.
In the early matches of his stewardship there has been a definite change of tact, pressing more aggressively and winning the ball further up the pitch.
According to The Sun, Rangnick had long earmarked this week as a blank one and hoped to spend all of it on the training pitches, drilling his new players.
Those plans are now in disarray, with time already running out before two matches in 72 hours over the festive period.
The 63-year-old is also looking to make final decisions on a number of players before the January window opens in ten days’ time.
Jesse Lingard, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba have all been linked with potential exits, with Rangnick admitting that no plans had yet been formulated for the upcoming window.
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“I've got to know them better obviously in this week, I saw most of them play in two games,” he said before their last game, vs Norwich City.
“We've three or four or five training sessions but it's still too early to speak about what we might do in the transfer window.
“If I look at the number of players we have it's still a big squad, we definitely do not have not enough players but we also need to make sure that players want to stay here.”
The disruption has meant those evaluations may need to be accelerated, while his in-depth tactical alterations could be left on hold until the conclusion of the hectic Christmas schedule.
