Ralf Rangnick has added two new faces to his Manchester United staff, with both Sascha Lense and Chris Armas joining the German tactician at Old Trafford.
Although both of the respective appointments have been met with some trepidation, with fans already questioning the appointment of Armas in particular, history tells us that previous careers don’t necessarily have to have an impact on future roles.
There have been countless examples of coaches who were all arguably better assistants than they were head coaches, and so the doubts surrounding Rangnick's two new appointments are perhaps a little unwarranted.
In MEN’s latest Facebook live, United on my Mind regulars Omar Garrick and Casey Evans discussed all things United, including the arrival of the two new men at Old Trafford.
OG : “I’ve seen some stats on Chris Armas and his time as a manager hasn’t been the most successful, but I think what we’ve seen with previous coaches who have been relatively successful on the coaching staff is that they've not always been so successful when they’ve taken the main role.
“I don’t think it really matters in that sense because coaches are all about instilling a certain type of philosophy and if Rangnick is bringing in people from his Red Bull set-up then it doesn’t bother me. You need those people to tell the players how to play as they’ll be accustomed to Rangnick’s style of play.”
CE : “If you look at some examples from United’s history, you have Carlos Queiroz who's now Egypt’s national team, Mike Phelan wasn’t great at Hull, René Meulensteen wasn’t great, Steve McClaren at England wasn’t great.
“Some coaches don’t make good managers because they don’t know how to make decisions a manager makes but they can really coach teams well. Chris Armas looks good, the fact he has top-level experience in a Red Bull system will be good for Rangnick as he tries to get his ideas across.
“It will be interesting. What we had was Mike Phelan who had done a lot in the past but didn’t do much at United this spell and then both Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick who were thrust into senior roles which were potentially too big for them at this moment in the time.
“It’s a significant step up whatever happens to bring in Chris Armas and I haven’t even mentioned Sascha Lense. That just seems like a smart move because a lot of clubs have a sports physiologist and United probably should’ve done that about five years ago.”
OG : “It’s certainly a good thing coming out of United that these coaches are coming in and I don’t think it matters the pedigree they have, it’s the fact they have experience in the Red Bull set-up and will know exactly how Rangnick will want to play.”
What do you think about United's latest appointments? Follow our United on my Mind trends writer Anil Kandola on Twitter and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
