COMMENT: Player power? Rifts? Cliques...? This Manchester United dressing room? C'mon. You can level a lot at this group of players. But inferring they're virtually unmanageable is absolutely ridiculous...

They've thrown the lot at these players. Trying to pinpoint why the performances haven't arrived. Why the celebrated gegenpressen of Ralf Rangnick isn't working. It's been all about the players. The personalities. The friendships. Even the bloody seating arrangements in the canteen. It's all been pored over. Dissected. And blamed.

Body language has been raised. Not just by those outside, but even the manager. Rangnick only too happy to latch onto one suggestion that made sense to him and to call out his team after the draw at Newcastle. But in their response, United's players displayed how ridiculous all these accusations of obstinacy is. With Paul Pogba out of the picture. With Jesse Lingard sidelined. You couldn't get a more malleable group as this. Victory over Burnley had Scott McTominay raising the idea of "improving" their body language in reaction to Monday night at St James' Park. Then just Saturday, Diogo Dalot was another to declare "you want to build that positive body language". This isn't the Chelsea of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. This is a group that is open, receptive and willing, almost desperate, to follow their manager's instructions. So what's the problem...?

Well it's actually easy. It's football. How it works. These players have been through the wringer this season and are still to reach the other side. A playing system built over two years was ripped up to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival in August. With the Portuguese, Raphael Varane also came to transform the spine of the team. It was never going to be smooth. The team needed time to bed it all down. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his staff the same. The process included finding a way for Jadon Sancho to avoid the settling in difficulties fellow Bundesliga arrivals Kai Havertz and Timo Werner had experienced the previous season at Chelsea.

New players. New system. Results would have to be eked out. The Old Trafford victories against Leeds and Newcastle had similar scorelines, but the performances were vastly different. It would improve - if the manager was given time.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. And with Rangnick came a new system. A new group of staff. Solskjaer's team were gutted. The German arrived with no experience of English football - oh, except running around the University leagues. His staff, Chris Armas, Ewan Sharp and Sascha Lense the same. New faces. New training methods. All arriving in the busiest period of the season. The players were starting from scratch. They were - and still are - learning and adjusting on the go. And that cuts both ways. This group, no matter how Rangnick ignores it, is effectively carrying the German and his staff as they bed in themselves. The goals of Cristiano Ronaldo. The form of David de Gea. This was all happening under Solskjaer. Even the unbeaten run was kicked off by Michael Carrick. Thus far, nothing - or no-one - pops out as a Rangnick-inspired improvement. The players have found a way to earn results against teams they're expected to.

And they're doing so with a manager they're yet to truly connect with.

That's not to say they're not trying. But for the moment, there is a disconnect between the players and Rangnick and his staff. It hasn't gelled. It could. But the players are still unsure of the theorist.

At least that's what this column has been told. He's said a lot since his arrival, has Rangnick. And the players have taken it on the chin. They know they've underperformed this season. Indeed, many still feel guilt over the demise of Solskjaer. But privately there's also been a puzzled response to Rangnick's public utterances. The issue being the players don't know who he is. No playing career to speak of. No great teams he's managed. The players aren't turning up their noses, but for them, there is something perplexing about how Rangnick has gone about things this past month. Indeed, as it was pointed out to us in Christmas week, "if you want to talk about body language, just study how the manager and certain players react to eachother". Again, the message isn't one of rebelliousness. But there needs some understanding here. The team. The system. The dugout. It's all undergoing a transition phase. And from Ronaldo's arrival to Sharp's appointment, it's all been done with the season well underway.

The players aren't blameless. But they don't deserve what's currently being leveled at them. Indeed, for this column, for the way they've managed to get back in the top four race - and keep the Champions League campaign alive - there's a lot more on the players' side of the ledger than Rangnick's.

Rifts? Cliques? C'mon. If this Rangnick project doesn't work, it won't be due to some sort of animosity from this group of Manchester United players.