The Reds secured all three points against Brighton, thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s early goal at the start of the second half and an injury time strike by Bruno Fernandes.
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Manchester United finally ended their three-game winless streak when they defeated 10-man Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 at Old Trafford on Tuesday night. In the only midweek Premier League game, the Reds secured all three points, thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s early goal at the start of the second half and an injury time strike by Bruno Fernandes. Besides, Lewis Dunk’s red card at the beginning of the second period also played an important part in the outcome. Interim United manager Ralf Rangnick was happy about certain aspects of the game but felt there were areas where the team could have improved.
Talking to MUTV and during his press conference, Rangnick said, “It felt better than the 35-40 minutes before that! Obviously, we should have killed the game off again, much earlier after the red card. We had five, six unbelievable chances to score, but, again, we didn’t and as long as it’s 1-0 and with the experience of the last three games – it’s normal that there is then a little bit of insecurity in the team. We were not quite lethal enough in those moments to kill the game off and it is always dangerous against 10 men. You can concede a goal. With Bruno’s goal, it was clear with only one minute to go that the game was over but it took very long before we put the game to bed.”
READ MORE – Cristiano Ronaldo on target as Manchester United beat Brighton 2-0 to go fourth
Rangnick also spoke about considering possible tactical tweaks during the match. However, he decided against it and stuck with the 4-2-3-1 formation. “Well, yes, it obvious in the first half that we had only two or three, maybe four turnovers and we were struggling to get hold of the ball and to take the ball away from them and, for us, it was – there were two alternatives. Either change formation to an unusual, in our view, 3-5-2, as our team hasn’t played in that formation that often, or mirror them in the 4-4-2 with a diamond,” he explained.
“That again would have meant that one or two players would have played in not their best possible positions. So we decided to stick to the 4-2-3-1 and just take more risks, attack their centre-backs with our wingers on the ball side and it paid off because of the goal we scored. The first goal, it was a brilliant ball win by Scott McTominay and the red card was a perfect interception by Anthony Elanga and, from then on, it was a different game. We were in control of the game and, as I said, the only thing that I can fault the team for is that we didn’t score three or four goals.”
Rangnick then went on to praise Cristiano Ronaldo’s contribution to the match and called his strike an “amazing goal.” “Yes, it was an amazing goal. Not only an important one but an amazing goal. Overall, it was also a good performance by Cristiano. Energetically, he was online, he was always trying to help the other team-mates. I think, in the last weeks, that would be the best performance by him and very, very important for us,” he added.
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