David Wagner can already see a change in Manchester United under “top manager” Ralf Rangnick, with the Young Boys coach expecting the hosts to be determined to exact revenge and impress their interim boss on Wednesday.
The reigning Swiss champions take on the Red Devils at Old Trafford knowing they need to repeat September’s shock last-gasp 2-1 victory in Bern to keep their hopes of Europa League football alive.
Young Boys need to win and hope Villarreal beat Atalanta to finish third on Wednesday, when Rangnick will rotate his side safe in the knowledge that United are already through as Group F winners.
But the German wants to build momentum after kicking off his interim stint with a win against Crystal Palace and Wagner, a contemporary from Germany, expects a tough evening in Manchester.
“I think he has shown in the past that he is a top manager,” the former Huddersfield boss said.
“He can develop football clubs, he can give football clubs a direction and I think Manchester United has done a good choice.
“Obviously they will for sure like to take the revenge after the first game which we played.
“We’ve seen after the change of the manager that they changed a little bit the style, a little bit more intensity, they were a little bit more on the front foot and we have to find our solutions against them.
“We hear that they maybe make some changes but, listen, it’s Man United, world-class players all over the park – not only the starting 11, they have 20, 22 world-class players which we will face.
“I think the role is clear. There is a favourite and we are the underdog but we absolutely accept our role and we are looking forward to it.
“Not every game the best players in the world can win and we will work on our performance that we hopefully can give them the biggest problems tomorrow and we will see what we get out of it.”
