Ralf Rangnick denies claims that Manchester United gave up vs Manchester City
Ralf Rangnick has refused to accept the claims that Manchester United gave up the fight in the second half of the match against Manchester City. His side lost 4-1 on the night as the hosts dominated them during the entirety of the derby game in a Premier League fixture.
Man City were clearly the better side in the first half of the match, having created more clear cut chances. However, the Red Devils were still in contention as they had enjoyed several threatening plays which they failed to convert to good opportunities. However, Pep Guardiola’s side took over the game in the final 45 minutes as Man United looked toothless and tired after the break.
Club legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane were adamant after the defeat that the Man United players had given up the fight, which resulted in the disappointing performance. Neville had mentioned that they ‘gave up”, which was then reiterated by Keane, who accused them that the players “threw the towel in” during the game.
Is the boss right?
Rangnick has addressed the matter in the post-match interview he gave on Sky Sports via Twitter (h/t The Express). He has disagreed with those claims from the Red Devils legends. The boss added that he did not feel that the team became dejected mid-game and stated that it was frustrating to keep chasing the Citizens.
“In the second half, it was difficult for us to keep them away from our own goal. It was frustrating to keep chasing them. I didn’t have the impression they didn’t try. For us, it was clear if we wanted a chance to win the game we have to do a lot of running. You have to be in attacking and hunting mode and we did that in the first half. The players tried everything. The third goal killed us off in the end.”
Siding with the club legends
The German coach seems like he is simply defending the players as all managers do in the face of criticisms. We cannot really blame the boss for taking that stance, but the players deserve to be criticised for the terrible second-half performance.
It would have been understandable for the players to be passive in certain phases as it is impossible to play with intensity throughout the match. But that was not the case in the second half since the team took the foot off the gas for unknown reasons.
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Some counter-attacking opportunities for us certainly showcased how the situation had developed in the second half. Normally one would expect that we would be the ones to push forward in such cases, but it was the opposite in the end.
Man City players were the ones who put in the effort to track back as our own players were slow to provide options in attack. That was the same when our city rivals cut through our press as the body language showed that the players were lacklustre to put effort after losing control in the second half.
We must change this mentality if there are ambitions to get better moving forward. Sure, Man City were the clear favourites to win the game, but it would have been better if we had fought hard and lost in the end. That would have filled us with the hope to improve in the future, unlike the current situation. Time will tell how the players would react after this setback as we lost further ground in the race to finish in the top four places.
