Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has clarified his stance on January transfers amid increased questioning about his potential activity. The winter transfer window opens in three weeks, giving United a chance to sanction incomings and outgoings midway through the season.
Ralf Rangnick still needs to properly assess his Man Utd squad. (Image: GETTY)
Ahead of Saturday's trip to Norwich City, Rangnick has outlined two key criteria for potential January transfer targets.
He told reporters: "My opinion on winter transfers is clear. It needs to be a player who improves the quality, who helps the team to get better.
"It needs to be a high-quality player, no matter which area of the pitch. On the other hand, it needs to be a player who, if they were available in the summer, they're available for similar conditions in the winter.
"Then it might make sense. It needs to be the right mentality as well as the right quality."
Earlier in his press conference, Rangnick suggested there is more chance of outgoings amid a selection of players' uncertain futures.
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"I've got to know them better obviously in this week, I saw most of them play in two games," Rangnick explained.
"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.
"If they're not getting enough game time, it might make sense to speak individually with those players, to see what might work."
Rangnick will be gradually learning about his squad on the training pitch and during games, of which he's only taken charge twice so far.
Man Utd will likely be active in January - especially with outgoings. (Image: EXPRESS)
The German tactician oversaw an encouraging win over Crystal Palace at Old Trafford before making 11 changes and handing out three debuts against BSC Young Boys in midweek.
So United's regular starters will be fresh for Saturday's trip to relegation strugglers Norwich, who could be weakened by a Covid outbreak after Dean Smith expressed fears about four players.
Speaking ahead of the match, he said: "We've got a couple of Covid-related issues that we're waiting on results for this morning.
"I can't really let you into any names at the moment, obviously, but there are three or four players that we're waiting on at the moment.
"There's a couple of players that we're worried about, so they've tested, and we'll wait for the PCR results to come back on them."