Were Manchester United preparing for Ralf Rangnick's arrival with their approach against Chelsea?

In their 1-1 draw with Chelsea United looked, in moments, like a team with a plan to win the ball back

Manchester United did not play Ralf Rangnick football against Chelsea. Their incoming head coach did not pick the team, not least because without a work permit yet he could not actually have any formal involvement in running the club.

Equally, those who had seen Rangnick's great Bundesliga sides would hardly see United's performance to eke out a 1-1 draw and think they were the English incarnation of Hoffenheim. But, compared to what the Red Devils have produced in the past, it did at least feel like a step in that general direction. You could at least imagine this was a team prepared to give Rangnick a sense of where his new charges are, and what they can do when asked to play in the fashion the German favors without the ball.

United were understandably at great pains to emphasize this was Carrick's team, and that it was the plan that he thought was best suited to getting a positive result at Chelsea, something which the visitors did indeed manage albeit through a fair degree more good fortune than execution.