to the post on Wednesday but had no
involvement as the caretaker
manager Michael Carrick took
control for Thursday’s win over
Arsenal. That left the new manager
with only one training session, at a
wind-swept Carrington on Saturday,
to prepare his players for a new style
of play, with Rangnick admitting he
was surprised at the response.
“Not only did we play on Thursday
with a late kick-off but we had not
even a full training session yesterday,”
he said. “It was not
only Manchester
weather, it was
disgusting, wind,
heavy rain. So it was
a 45-minute training
session.
“It was almost
impossible to train
and concentrate fully
but they did it and
those 45 minutes
were important to explain how we
want them to play. I didn’t expect
them to play at that kind of level after
such a short period of time.”
Fred, so often the object of criticism
under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was the
unexpected match winner on
Rangnick’s United debut and earned
the praise of his new manager.
Rangnick said: “If you play the way
we played — proactively, on the front
foot, with four offensive players ahead— then it’s important you have
players who are very disciplined and
pro-actively aggressive against the
ball. For the way we play, both Scotty
[McTominay] and Fred were almost
perfect defensively.”
Rangnick moves on to his first
European game in charge of United
on Wednesday as Young Boys visit
Old Trafford in the final group game
of the Champions League with his
club already qualified for the knock-
out stages.
“It’s possible you
will see fresh players
because our next
game after that is
coming up at
Norwich on
Saturday,” he said.
The Palace
manager Patrick
Vieira lamented a
miss from Jordan
Ayew, only three
minutes before the United goal, and
criticised his players’ lack of bravery.
“Jordan’s a team player, he does
fantastic work outside possession,”
Vieira said. “But the forwards are
judged by their number of chances
and those goals they score. I’m really
disappointed because he deserved to
score today. We weren’t brave enough
to play out the back. We were missing
players today, there was a lack of
confidence in possession.”14
Successive home games in
all competitions in which
Manchester United have
conceded at least one goal
before yesterday’s clean
sheet against Palacefifth booking came at a bad time.
Clyne had to play his first game of the
season at right back, was inevitably
slightly off the pace and was booked
for a dangerous tackle on Fred.
Two of Vieira’s three changes
seemed too late. Jordan Ayew has not
scored in 41 Premier League games,
missed a sitter here and was removed
with only six minutes remaining. His
replacement, Michael Olise, deserved
more time to make an impact. Vieira
is understandably easing Eberechi
Eze back in, after his six months out
with an achilles problem, but he also
merited more than six minutes here
when coming on for Kouyaté.
Scoring is the issue, especially if
Wilfried Zaha is misfiring or being
kept under control. Christian Benteke
has managed only four goals in 15
league games this season and he
either needs support from Odsonne
Édouard or to be replaced by him
(as he was to little effect after 67
minutes).
It was mainly United in the first
half. They constantly sought out
Ronaldo. Fernandes pressed
Gallagher, then lifted the ball in to
Ronaldo, whose effort was blocked by
Marc Guéhi. Dalot crossed, Ronaldo
leapt well but headed over. Rashford
then cut the ball back to Ronaldo,
whose left-footed shot drew a low
stop from Guaita. Operation Release
Ronaldo was well under way.
Rangnick made his first change
after 62 minutes, sending on
Greenwood for Sancho. Fernandes
drilled the ball long to the breaking
Rashford, who cut inside Guéhi and
was dragged down by the defender.
The position was wide on the right
but Alex Telles had total confidence
in his technique. He bent the ball left-
footed over the leaping players, on to
the crossbar and over.
Palace responded. When James
Tomkins headed back Mitchell’s
corner, the unmarked Ayew somehow
shot across goal and wide. It seemed
far easier to score. Rangnick twisted
again, removing Rashford and
sending on Anthony Elanga.
For all the talk of how Ronaldo
would fare under Rangnick, he
completed the 90 minutes. The
German’s final change was to remove
Fernandes for Donny van de Beek.
Ronaldo kept the shape, shuttling
back at times to see out the game as
Old Trafford was treated to its first
clean sheet in the league since March
14 – as well as Fred’s thunderbolt.HOW THEY STAND
New manager tips his hat to Ronaldofor striker’s tireless work off the ball
Ralf Rangnick praised his Manchester
United players for delivering the
“perfect” start to his Old Trafford
career and tipped his hat to Cristiano
Ronaldo.
Questions were raised over
whether the veteran Portuguese star
would buy into the coach’s trademark
high-pressing style. But the 63-year-
old German, who only had one 45-
minute training session with his
players before the game, said Ronaldo
answered his critics and praised his
entire squad for their response in the
victory against Crystal Palace.
“It was a perfect first game for us to
play,” Rangnick said. “We wanted to
play with two strikers, especially in
the central position. By the way,
Cristiano Ronaldo’s work off the ball,
chapeau.
“I was positively surprised by the
physical state and the intensity shown
by the players. In the first half, they
were amazing — an extremely high
tempo, high intensity, always on the
front foot. The only thing missing was
scoring the goal or two, or even three,
we deserved.
“For me, it was clear we couldn’t
play the whole 90 minutes at that
intensity level but we still controlled
the game.”
Rangnick was officially appointedIAN WHITTELLPWD L F APts
Man City 15 11 2 2 32 9 35
Liverpool 15 10 4 1 44 12 34
Chelsea 15 10 3 2 35 9 33
West Ham 15 8 3 4 28 19 27
Tottenham 14 8 1 5 16 17 25
Man Utd 15 7 3 5 25 24 24
Arsenal 14 7 2 5 17 20 23
Wolves 15 6 3 6 12 13 21
Brighton 15 4 8 3 14 16 20
Aston Villa 15 6 1 8 21 24 19
Leicester 15 5 4 6 23 27 19
Brentford 15 4 5 6 19 21 17
Crystal Palace 15 3 7 5 19 21 16
Leeds 15 3 7 5 15 22 16
Southampton 15 3 7 5 14 21 16
Everton 14 4 3 7 17 24 15
Watford 15 4 1 1020 29 13
Burnley 14 1 7 6 14 21 10
Newcastle 15 1 7 7 17 30 10
Norwich 15 2 4 9 8 31 10ROBBIE JAY BARRATT/AMA/GETTY IMAGESbutton on Rangnick era
Fred’s rocket
beats Guaita
to round off
an industrious
afternoon and
seal victorythe times | Monday December 6 2021 1GG 3
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