Manchester United news: Ralf Rangnick praises Scott McTominay’s ‘leadership skills’

Manchester United had to dig deep and suffer for long periods during the narrow 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the FA Cup. Despite the victory, a lot of questions still remain to be answered by interim manager Ralf Rangnick and his players. One of the few positives from that below-par performance was the showing of Scott McTominay. The 25-year-old helped United progress into the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup with a match-winning header against Villa. McTominay headed home Fred’s cross in the eighth minute of the closely-fought third-round tie. After the match, Rangnick has suggested that McTominay has the leadership qualities to be a future Manchester United captain.

“He is an Academy boy, [and] his energy is amazing,” said Rangnick, after a typically industrious display from the Scotland international. “He’s now also started scoring goals, and also with some leadership skills. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a couple of years, he would be the captain of this team.”

READ MORE – FA Cup: Manchester United narrowly beat wasteful Aston Villa

‘First half, I thought, was good’

After the match, Rangnick, while speaking to MUTV and BBC Sport, opened up about a lot of things, including tactical tweaks during the 1-0 victory over Villa. “I think everybody expected a reaction to the Wolves game. I think the team showed a reaction. We didn’t miss out on intensity, but we still had difficult moments in the game. First half, I thought, was good,” he explained. 

“We played a lot of diagonal balls; we kept the Villa team moving from one side to the other, scored a beautiful goal, but on the other hand, we were still struggling to get control in midfield. We knew that they are very flexible, Villa, with their midfield, with their two no.10s and their three no.6s and no.8s, so at times we were struggling.”

“It got much better in the second half when we changed to a diamond and, yes, in the last 15 minutes, we controlled the game. On the counter-attack, I would have wished us to take better decisions in the second half. Then we could have scored maybe even a second goal, but with 1-0 it’s always tight until the very end.”

The manager further opened up about the formation with which Manchester United started the match and the reason behind changing it in the second half. “We decided to play with a 4-2-3-1 with Edi up front, and with Bruno our no.10. But again, against a flexible midfield, at times, it was difficult, because with their 10s behind our sixes, ahead of our central defenders, it’s not too easy to defend that. It’s pretty challenging. As I said, after we changed to a diamond, it got better,” he added.