Manchester United news: Full focus must go to the other two competitions, says Ralf Rangnick

Manchester United suffered a shock Emirates FA Cup defeat at the hands of Middlesborough at Old Trafford. A dominant first half display saw the Reds take the lead, thanks to Jadon Sancho’s maiden home goal. However, United failed to make their chances count and soon the opposition punished the home side, with Matt Crooks levelling things up midway through the second half. In the end, it was Chris Wilder’s side who progressed to round five, thanks to their 8-7 victory in a marathon penalty shootout. United players, however, have no time to dwell on the FA Cup disappointment, with the Reds quickly returning to action in a few days’ time in the Premier League.

With United set to play Burnley in the midweek, Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick will hope that his side will respond to this setback in a positive fashion. “I think we have played well in the last couple of weeks, in the league and also today in the first half,” said the 63-year-old. “I don’t think we could have done a lot of things a lot better, apart from scoring more goals in the first half. ‘We have to take our chances better with more quality than we did today.”

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Things like that can happen, says Ralf Rangnick

United were extremely wasteful on the night, especially in the first half. Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty that would have opened the scoring before Sancho scored the first goal. Even Bruno Fernandes had a great chance in the match, but he hit the post. The interim manager played it down, saying these types of things happen on a football pitch. However, he rallied the team to focus on doing well in the Premier League and Champions League.

“The chance that Bruno had, if he had 10 chances like that in a game, he would score nine of them. Today he hit the post and I think he tried to place that ball almost too accurately into the corner of the goal. In the end things like that can happen. Of course he didn’t do that on purpose and for now our full focus must go on the other two competitions.”

The Premier League action will come thick and fast during February, which will also see United restart their Champions League campaign. “Physically, I don’t think we need to lift the squad,” Ralf added. 

“With Paul [Pogba] having been out for two and a half months, it was normal that he was substituted after 65, 70 minutes. Jadon [Sancho] had no injury, he was just feeling some fatigue and had some cramp so that was the reason why we decided to take him off. Of course the players are disappointed like we all are but again this is football, this can happen.”