Ralf Rangnick believes Manchester United need to better as a team ahead of facing Burnley

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, as quoted by the club’s official website, Ralf Rangnick has claimed that Manchester United need to get better as a team ahead of the game against Burnley. 

Sean Dyche and co will be travelling to Old Trafford on Thursday as they look to avoid relegation this season. Man United will be coming into the game on the back of a draw against Newcastle United. Rangnick was not too pleased with his side’s performance against the Magpies and pinpointed the issues.

The frontline were pressing half-heartedly rather than doing it together as a team. Fred and Scott McTominay ran themselves into the ground but received little help from Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood, and Bruno Fernandes. The defence suffered because of this as the hosts launched one attack after the other as they could comfortably beat the press.

Rangnick claimed ahead of the mid-week tie against Burnley that his side needs to act better as a team and that the problems start upfront.

“Our problem again was that we allowed them too many transitional moments, and this is not only a problem of the centre-backs, but it also is a problem of the whole team, and it starts up front.

“You can speak also about the role of the no.10s in that kind of formation. I don’t think it makes sense to speak about the individual performance of players. We need to get better as a team.”

Need to find solutions

Now that the diagnosis is done, it is time for Rangnick to find a cure. The men in red looked like a team under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and with all respect to the Norwegian, that is not a compliment. The German was brought in for the team to play attractive football again and find an identity.

The victory against Crystal Palace at the start of the month showed signs of that. However, we laboured to a victory against Norwich City, and a similar performance at St. James’ Park landed us a draw. There is a need to integrate everybody and play to the strengths of the team rather than to that of a single player. 

Cristiano Ronaldo, Rashford, and Fernandes thrive in a counter-attacking system and sometimes fail to break open teams that just sit back. Even during our first encounter against the Magpies in September, it took a fumble from the opposition goalkeeper to open the scoring. Thus, Rangnick needs to find solutions to these problems.

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Moreover, those that might not help the game-plan in a particular match need to be dropped. Michael Carrick boldly dropped Ronaldo for the Chelsea tie in November and also placed Fernandes on the bench against Villarreal. Once the selection is right, and the game-plan is clear the pressing and the understanding can be cohesive. The Old Trafford faithful would be hoping to see shades of that in the upcoming tie against Burnley.