Manchester City vs Manchester United: We can almost not drop anymore points, says Ralf Rangnick on top four race

Manchester United suffered a demoralising 4-1 defeat against Manchester City in the derby on Sunday. In what was expected to be a pulsating Premier League rivalry clash, City ran away with it as comfortable winners. It was in the second half when Pep Guardiola’s side showed their true ability by completely dominating the match to not allow their city rivals any hope for a comeback. The result is a big blow for United in their bid to stay in the top four race. After the match, interim manager Ralf Rangnick has stated that Manchester United can hardly afford to drop any more points if they need to secure a Premier League top four place.

“I think it was a good first half, even the first 60 minutes were okay, but the first half was good. We had our moments, we could have scored one or two goals more in the first half. Whenever we were in possession of the ball, we showed that we could create problems for them, the same is true with our transitional moments, but, in the end, they scored two goals and we only scored one,” he added. 

“So at half-time, it was clear for us that we needed to try to score at least one if not two more goals, and once they scored the third one, which was a brilliant corner kick, we just have to admit that, it was difficult to defend it, then it was almost over. This goal killed us off because then against a team like Manchester City, the best team in the world in possession of the world, if you then still try to chase the ball high up, then you take the risk to concede another two or three more goals.”

READ MORE – Pep Guardiola’s side demolish Red Devils in derby to complete league double 

Rangnick: We had not that many strikers available

Speaking about the strikers’ shortage for the big clash, Rangnick said, “We had not that many strikers available today, the only one that we had on the bench was Marcus, who we brought on after 60 mins, so for us it was clear we have to have as many players on the pitch who get behind the ball and we make sure that we are as compact as we can possibly be.”

The result was a big blow to United’s top four ambitions, with Arsenal leapfrogging them into fourth place. Rangnick, however, is not looking too far ahead as he wants to only focus on the two upcoming home games. “I didn’t actually expect Arsenal to lose at Watford so for us it’s clear, if we still want to have a chance to finish fourth at the end of the season, we can almost not drop anymore points, and we also know that in those 10 games that we have to play, there are a few other difficult ones so let’s take it game by game. For us, it’s important we keep developing the team, which we did in the last couple of months, and then make sure we can win the next two home games against Tottenham and against Atletico, two very important games for us to come,” he explained.