The Red Devils failed to keep a clean sheet, as Steven Gerrard's boys were allowed to stage a late fight back to level the final score at 2-2.
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Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick was understandably “disappointed” with his players letting a two-goal lead slip away at Villa Park. From 2-0 up, United had to settle for a point in the Premier League clash against Aston Villa on Saturday. After scoring the opener in the first half, Bruno Fernandes put the Reds further in front with his excellent second goal of the game. However, the Red Devils failed to keep a clean sheet, as Steven Gerrard’s boys were allowed to stage a late fight back to level the final score at 2-2.
In his post-match interview with MUTV, Rangnick said, “[I am] completely disappointed about the result. After being two-nil up after 70 minutes you have to be disappointed and it’s difficult now to speak about the positives, but I still believe that we showed quite a few positive things today. In the first half-hour we dominated the game, it was our best performance on the ball, we could have been two or three-nil up in the first half-hour.”
“In those last 15 minutes again we showed if we open up the space, if we are not compact enough, other teams can create chances which is what happened. But still, one-nil at half-time and in the second half again we were more compact, we had more control on the game and scored the second goal after 70 minutes. Then you should expect an experienced team like we have, that we are capable to take the three points home.”
READ MORE – Bruno Fernandes scores brace in 2-2 draw against Aston Villa
Rangnick then spoke about the possibility of changing the back four to a back three towards the end of the match but decided not to go ahead with it. “I was thinking and discussing with my assistant coach about a back three in the last 15 minutes but my worry was that if we changed the formation, we would be pinned back too much and then concede the goals. So I decided to stick with the back four and try to keep them out of our box but in the end it didn’t work out,” he explained.
The manager was impressed with young wide player Anthony Elanga’s promising display on Saturday night. “He had a good game. He showed exactly those things that I expected him to show and why I decided to play him from the start. He not only worked hard for the team defensively, he also had two or three good if not great opportunities to score himself. He confirmed his nomination from the beginning,” he explained.
Speaking about the possibility of having a bigger squad for the Brentford clash on Wednesday, he said, “Hopefully the injured or ill players will be back for Wednesday but right now I’m not sure, or thinking about the game on Wednesday. I’m still very disappointed about this result.”
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