KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- Intense curiosity surrounds the arrival of Ralf Rangnick at Manchester United. He has been prised away from Lokomotive Moscow to become caretaker manager for the rest of the season in a Premier League in which he has no working experience.

Media hype has been generous in affording him a wonderful reputation but, as fans on social media have pointed out, he has very few trophies to his name: a sort of German Marcelo Bielsa.

The task confronting him is doubly difficult. First he must arrest a decline in form and results, bring discipline to a disorganised team and inject the players of Manchester DisUnited with new confidence.

Secondly, while achieving all of this, he must look for a new manager and draw up a blueprint for the future which he will oversee in a two-year consultancy.

He has great resources but limited time. The fans will be patient. But only for a matter of months. Rangnick must impress as team manager to bring credibility to his long-term role.

The 63-year-old reportedly impressed executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and football director John Murtough to halt all consideration of other possible interim managers such as Rudi Garca and Ernesto Valverde.

Meanwhile the possibility remains that United are waiting for the end of the French season to bring Mauricio Pochettino back to English football.

Whether Rangnick and the Argentinian are on the same football wavelength is another matter entirely.

The Ajax coach, Erik ten Hag, would appear to be a more appropriate managerial successor to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who understood all of United’s traditions but did not possess the coaching expertise to match.

Solskjaer was cut loose after the 4-1 defeat at Watford after which goalkeeper David De Gea said:: “We don’t know what to do with the ball. We don’t know how to defend properly.” This was a devastating, final blow.

Assuming Rangnick’s work permit clearance arrives in the next few days his first test in the Premier League lions’ den will come at home to Arsenal on Thursday then at home again to Crystal Palace on Sunday.

His baptism into a typically hectic English week will come with the succeeding Champions League home tie against Young Boys Bern: three games in seven days.

Comparisons with the initiations of Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel may be instructive. Klopp needed six months to impose a new identity on Liverpool; by contrast Tuchel proved an instant success at Chelsea. But Liverpool had been in the slow lane for some years and did not boast the squad strength available to Tuchel.

Rangnick will find a squad of talented players but imposing his ideas and a new style demands time. Tuchel set a high standard.

But then, Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United set an impossibly high standard for any of his successors, as David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho discovered.

The mix of players is almost  certainly not one that Rangnick would have preferred for himself.

Fans will be fascinated to see how to manages to accommodate the inconsistent Paul Pogba in midfield with an ageing but single-minded striker such as Cristiano Ronaldo.

In fact Ronaldo was only a substitute for the 1-1 draw at Chelsea which was in the charge of caretaker Michael Carrick.

Perhaps Rangnick can find a role at last for Donny van de Beek who was only an expensive substitute for Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer.

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