Robbie Fowler has tipped Ralf Rangnick to transform Manchester United in the same way Gerard Houllier did with Liverpool.
Rangnick has taken over for the rest of the campaign at Old Trafford following the departure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last month.
The German has signed a deal which will see him spend six months on the United touchline, before moving to a consultancy role for the following two years.
But the appointment drew a mixed reception from pundits and those in the game, with many questioning why he had failed to land a role in the Premier League before.
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The former RB Leipzig boss has been linked with a litany of top-flight positions in recent years, including roles at Chelsea and Everton.
But Fowler has backed Rangnick to succeed at United and believes the Old Trafford club currently find themselves in a very similar situation to when Houllier replaced Roy Evans at Anfield back in 1998.
“Why didn’t we win anything? I’d say it came to balance… or a lack of it. We couldn’t quite find a consistency between attack and defence,” he wrote in the Mirror.
“I think United have the same problem, and I think they reacted just as Liverpool did back in the 90s when they brought in Gerard Houllier.
“There was always this stigma – unfairly – that he [Evans] was somehow ‘too nice’. I don’t even know what that is supposed to mean, but you get the impression the United board felt the same about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“Again, I don’t know if that’s correct. But I think you can see that like my Liverpool team, there isn’t the consistency, or direction, or balance. They don’t get it right in all areas at the same time.
“Liverpool responded by bringing in Houllier. He brought in a school master approach, supposedly tougher and more disciplined.
“You get the impression Rangnick is like that too, and yes, it could work. But I do believe that to be successful in management these days, you have to be more collaborative, understand your players better.
“Maybe that’s why Mourinho didn’t work at Old Trafford, maybe that is why they went down the route of Solskjaer. Now it seems they thought he was too soft. I guess the hope is that Rangnick is somewhere in between.”
