MY ACCOUNT
Ralf Rangnick accepts Manchester United were “a bit sloppy” in their 1-1 Champions League draw with Young Boys, but insists his side could have won the game.
With United already confirmed as group winners, Rangnick took the opportunity to rotate his squad on Wednesday by making 11 changes to the side that started in the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Mason Greenwood opened the scoring at Old Trafford with a spectacular finish early on as the Red Devils started strongly, but Young Boys equalised through Fabian Rieder shortly before the break and were the better side in the second half, finishing the game with 17 shots to United’s seven.
Rangnick feels his men should have scored more during their strong first-half spell, but pointed out their lack of familiarity with each other as a unit.
“I was fully aware before the game that with this team that we played today, we haven’t played together,” Rangnick said to BT Sport after the game.
“The first half-hour we did quite okay. We had a few unforced errors but had control of the game. We should have been 2-0 or 3-0 up. We had some great opportunities but we didn’t score. We were a bit sloppy with those situations.
“After we conceded the equaliser we were not defending high enough or proactive enough. If in the end, the score would have been 4-4, then nobody could have complained.
“There were quite a few debuts and game time for players who desperately need game time. I wouldn’t say I was happy but it was okay.
“What was a little bit annoying was we gave the ball away and played too many balls into the first line of their area. Whenever we played the ball into the second or third line, we were always dangerous. I told them that before the game but they still played into that first line.”
Rangnick also had fitness updates on full-back pair Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, with the former playing for an hour on his return from injury and the latter appearing to hurt himself late on.
“It was good to see Luke Shaw back and hopefully he can be a candidate for the Norwich game,” Rangnick continued.
“Aaron Wan-Bissaka got two knocks so we will have to see how this develops. It was an experiment but I did it on purpose as I wanted to save the players’ energy for Norwich.”
