Facing a team wearing green and yellow on Saturday afternoon, it’s coincidentally a fitting occasion chosen by Manchester United supporters to demonstrate against the club's ownership once more given the associated green and gold of Newton Heath.
As the closest home match to the one-year anniversary of the fateful European Super League proposals, United fans have elected the meeting with Norwich City as an opportunity to voice their displease towards the club’s running. The intention is that those involved in the protest will leave their seats empty for the opening 17 minutes of the match - one minute for each year of the Glazer family’s ownership.
It won't be the first protest of the week, with a considerably smaller group of around 30 fans having to be ushered away by police from United's Carrington training centre on Friday. It was labelled a 'peaceful protest' by the club, though the entrance gates to the grounds were shut as a precaution after events last April when fans managed to make their way onto the grounds.
Ralf Rangnick uttered his understanding by suggesting, "We all know that football is a game of passion and emotions, and I think we can all understand."
"As long as they do that protest in a peaceful way and as long as they still support the team in the stadium, I think they have the right to express their opinion," he continued. "And, as I said, emotionally, I can understand that they are being disappointed."
However, there have been hints support for those on the pitch is starting to waver. There was an abject reaction from the away support at Goodison Park when the majority of players failed to applaud or even acknowledge their presence. During the protest at Carrington, one banner did read 'not fit to wear the shirt'.
There have been growing question marks over the attitude of the regular first team players, with those featuring at Everton seemingly lacking motivation to the extent that they appeared to be downing tools. As a result, there have been widespread pleas for Rangnick to draft in some youth team players, exacerbated by the fact that there are five senior absentees in Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay, Fred and Edinson Cavani.
In the case of Shaw, he could have seen his last action of the season according to Rangnick: "As it seems, he will be out for another at least four weeks, if not five weeks, so I think for him it will be difficult to be available for one of the remaining seven games."
Although it seems as though Shaw's season is done, Rangnick has failed to call-up highly-rated young left-back Alvaro Fernandez as a deputy for Alex Telles according to United's slim 19-man squad (from those spotted arriving at the team hotel).
The squad does contain two under-23 players in Hannibal Mejbri and Alejandro Garnacho, with the latter in line for his maiden matchday squad inclusion after his recent trip away with the Argentinian senior national team. Even then, though, Rangnick has displayed some hesitance when saying, "We are not playing any friendly games or games where we say 'okay, now we give a young player an opportunity to play.'"
Realistically, United's bid for Champions League football seems to have reached a close. Hereby, with the regular first team outfit blatantly underperforming, it would seem an apt opportunity to grant chances to some of the budding talents in the club's ranks.
One of the only hopes that can be had is that the almost-certain arrival of Erik ten Hag as manager in the summer, offering some more stability, could spur some players on to performing at a higher standard. However, there are already pointers that talks between the Ajax manager and United were centred around the necessity of rebuild.
Rangnick admitted, "I think we are all aware that this is not an easy squad, that the whole situation was not easy, otherwise I wouldn’t even be sitting here, and Ole would probably still be here."
If the case is a set-in-stone rebuild, then there would appear a further incentive to trial the likes of Hannibal and Garnacho given greater likelihood that they could remain at the club longer-term. Particularly for the former as a midfielder, it makes sense for him to be granted playing time at present with McTominay and Fred injured and Nemanja Matic (confirmed) and Paul Pogba set to depart the club.
Hypothetically, if the recently-existent formula remains in tact to face Norwich and United fail to acquire three points, you could really see the Old Trafford crowd turning against the players, no matter the hope that is instilled in tandem with Ten Hag's prospective arrival.
After all, Norwich are bottom of the Premier League having picked up only 21 points in 30 matches, seven points from safety having played a game more than 17th-place Everton. A 2-0 win against Burnley last weekend ended a run of nine matches winless in all competitions for Norwich, but it barely even offers a glimmer of a chance of staying up.
Meanwhile, defeat would see United falling foul to relegation contenders in consecutive weekends, extending to a winless run of four matches. Rangnick's side have only won three of their last 12 matches in all competitions; eight wins in 17 league matches gives the German the lowest win percentage of any United manager in the Premier League.
Rangnick does insist that he has "no regrets whatsoever" about taking the interim role at United and "would do it over and over again" if given the chance. But any initial stabilisation achieved by Rangnick after initially taking over from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been all but undone.
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