Varun Pai
Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick claims he was negatively surprised by his team’s performance against Newcastle United
Speaking in a press conference, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News, Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick revealed that his side’s performance against Newcastle United was a negative surprise.
The Red Devils could not conjure a victory against Newcastle on Monday and lost ground in the Top 4 race. The players did not look up for the challenge and looked surprisingly tired for the most part.
Covid-19 issues did lead to postponing the games against Brentford and Brighton two weeks ago. This also led to the training ground being closed for four days. However, Rangnick still got six whole days to coach the side to face the Geordies. Thus, it was a shock that several stars lacked energy and enthusiasm in the game.
Rangnick claimed that he was negatively surprised by the performance.
“The last three days we were almost back to full strength with regard to the size of the squad, but we couldn’t do that much in training. On the other hand, in those two or three training sessions, the team looked good.
“Therefore, it really was a bit of a, in today’s game, a negative surprise the way that we played with regard to game speed and game tempo and physicality.”
Can Man United turn things around?
There have been several doubts over the quality of our squad in the past few months. After signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane, and Jadon Sancho, the expectations would not have been to fight for a Top 4 spot. Yet here we are running the risk of not qualifying for Champions League football next season.
There is more than enough in the ranks to defeat the 19th placed side in the league. Moreover, a side that has only won once this season. Thus, we had everything riding on this fixture while it would not have been a surprise if the Toon Army had been whitewashed by our frontline.
However, the frontline could not hold the ball for long stretches of the game and lost it constantly. This, in turn, caused several counterattacks, leaving Varane and Harry Maguire exposed at the back since our midfielders and full-backs would commit most of their energy going forward in finding the equalizer and a potential winner.
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Rangnick has always executed an attractive brand of football. But it requires 100% commitment from all the players and the energy levels need to be pumping throughout the game. The half-hearted approach we took on Monday is not going to work out, and there needs to be a more convincing display against the Clarets on Thursday night.
