‘Frustrating night’

Man United interim boss Rangnick criticises team for failing to make the most of dominant first half in 1-1 draw against Burnley; says side lacked aggression

Ralf Rangnick blamed lack of aggression for Manchester United’s failure to beat bottom-of-the-table Burnley as a 1-1 draw at Turf Moor saw the Red Devils fall out of the Premier League’s Top 4. With Cristiano Ronaldo left on the bench, United were made to pay for not making more of a dominant first 45 minutes after Paul Pogba put them in front. 

Burnley roared back after the break and gave their survival hopes a boost when Jay Rodriguez levelled two minutes into the second half. West Ham’s 1-0 win over Watford sees the Hammers leapfrog United into the final slot to qualify for next season’s Champions League, while Arsenal and Tottenham remain within striking distance with games in hand. 

Man Utd boss Ralf Rangnick 

“Again it’s a frustrating night for us because we should have won easily,” said Rangnick. “The first 15-20 minutes of the second half we were just not aggressive enough. One point from a performance like this is just not enough.” United’s troubled season hit another bump in the road when they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship side Middlesbrough on penalties on Friday. 

Lessons not learnt

The lessons from that defeat were not learned as again Rangnick’s men had more than enough chances to kill the game as a contest before half-time before being punished for a slack piece of defending. 

For the first time the German left a fit Ronaldo out of his starting line-up for a league match after he played the full 120 minutes on Friday. However, United’s first half performance will add more fuel to the debate on whether they function better as a unit without the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. 

The visitors had the ball in the net three times and missed a number of guilt-edged chances, but only had one goal to show for their dominance by half-time. Raphael Varane thought he had scored his first United goal when he leapt to power home Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick on 15 minutes. But after a VAR review, the goal was disallowed. 

‘Soft decision’

“We scored three goals,” Rangnick said. “The second [disallowed goal] the linesman flagged foul but he flagged it 10 seconds after that incident. This was a very soft decision,” he added. 

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!