In a largely one-sided first half, United created numerous goal-scoring chances but failed to score a second goal, which came back to haunt them.
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Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick was understandably not happy with his team dropping two points during the 1-1 draw against Burnley on Tuesday night. In a largely one-sided first half, United created numerous goal-scoring chances but failed to score a second goal, which came back to haunt the team. The Reds conceded early in the second half and never managed to regain the same control of the Premier League match. Other than Paul Pogba’s 18th-minute neat finish, United had the ball in the back of the net on two more occasions, only to see both goals disallowed for offside and a foul.
“[There were] not that many things that we could have done better in the first half,” Ralf Rangnick told MUTV post-match. “We scored three goals, two of them disallowed. Especially the second one, nobody can really understand it was disallowed, and why the linesman flagged a foul from Paul Pogba eight seconds after the foul, if there was a foul committed. Anyway, we should have been at least 2-0 up at half-time.
“But we said the same after the Middlesbrough game. We were doing extremely well on the ball and controlled the game but in the end it’s about winning the game. Today with only one point after those 94 minutes, nobody can be happy. And above all, if you want to be fourth in the league, we should not lose points like the ones tonight.”
READ MORE – Red Devils held to a 1-1 draw by bottom club Burnley
The result could well be a massive blow for United in the race for the top four places. West Ham United currently occupy the fourth spot with 40 points. United are a point behind the London club, but have a game in hand. After the match, Rangnick went into some detail on where he felt things went wrong in the second half.
“The second half we didn’t start well, we were not aggressive enough, we were not composed enough on the ball,” he explained. Even the two minutes before we conceded the goal, three times we had won the ball and played tiki-taka football in our own half and gave away the ball too easily.
“Then we had our own counterattack, 20 seconds before we scored. The behaviour of our team in those 10 seconds before they scored was just not good enough. We had two or three players in our own half but still allowed them to score the goal.”
With fixtures coming thick and fast, United have no time to dwell on this draw. Manchester United host two south-coast teams in quick succession. Southampton and Brighton visit Old Trafford on Saturday (12 February) and Tuesday (15 February) respectively. Following the draw, a victory in those upcoming fixtures for United is a must to maintain their push for a top four finish.
“Even if we had won [against Burnley], it would have been important but now it’s even more important to get six points out of those two games,” Ralf explained.
“But in order to do that we have to learn the lessons and just be aware that we have play on that kind of level, not only for 45 or today maybe total 70 minutes, we have to play like that for 90-94 minutes.”
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