Manchester United news: Ralf Rangnick on Edinson Cavani’s return

Edinson Cavani returning to full fitness will be a big boost for Manchester United, as the Uruguayan came from the bench to show his worth on Monday night. Cavani came on as a substitute and scored the equaliser during the 1-1 draw at Newcastle United on Monday night in the Premier League. The veteran striker could very well form a lethal partnership with another veteran legend of the game in Cristiano Ronaldo during the season. In his press conference, Ralf Rangnick, when asked about the returning Cavani, said, “Actually over the last few days, I was also considering playing him from the start.” 

“I spoke with him yesterday and the day before yesterday and he didn’t feel comfortable to play from the beginning because he didn’t know how fit he was but today after being 1-0 down at half-time, it was clear to me that we needed to take more risks, to change something and that’s why we decided to bring on him and Jadon [Sancho] at half-time.”

Rangnick opens up on his time with the club

The Covid-19 crisis in the Premier League did not leave Manchester United alone either. A couple of their games were postponed and players started returning to training on a scattered basis last week. Amidst it, Rangnick was asked if he thinks whether he has made as much progress as he would like to have done, having been in the job for three or four weeks now.

“Of course not. Every ambitious coach, and there’s no difference between other coaches and myself in that area, wants to take faster steps and larger steps forward. In order to do that, you need to be able to train and, as you know, we had to close Carrington for four days, and before that, we had eight or nine outfield players training,” he was quoted as saying by their club’s website. 

“So directly after the Norwich game, they only came back in small bits and pieces, so the last three days we were almost back to full strength with regards to the size of the squad, but we couldn’t do that much in training. On the other hand, in those two or three training sessions, the team looked good and so therefore in today’s game [Newcastle on Monday] it was a negative surprise the way that we played with regards to game speed, game tempo and physicality.”