Greenwood scored a stunning opener against Young Boys on Wednesday night, but United had to settle for a draw in the Champions League match.
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Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has found positives and negatives in the Reds’ 1-1 draw with Young Boys on Wednesday night. The German saw his new side round off the Champions League Group F campaign by sharing the points with the Swiss champions. Mason Greenwood scored a stunning opener against Young Boys on the night, but United had to settle for a draw in the end at Old Trafford. Greenwood’s opening strike was cancelled out by Fabian Rieder’s equaliser just before half-time. The 63-year-old would have been keen to see his team record a second win from as many games in his tenure, following on from Sunday’s win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League. However, Rangnick still had a lot of positives to take from his Manchester United players’ performances.
He made 11 changes to the Manchester United line-up from the 1-0 victory at the weekend. This allowed him the opportunity to get a closer look at several members of his squad for the first time, in a game situation. Speaking to MUTV and BT Sport along with a post-match press conference, Ralf Rangnick said, “We shouldn’t be too strict. I was fully aware with this formation and line-up, the players haven’t played together like this. I think the first half-hour was okay, we scored a beautiful goal, we had another two great opportunities. Juan Mata should have scored actually and the same with Amad.”
“At that time, we should have been 2-0, if not 3-0 up and then we made the mistake to get less proactive. We were too deep, we sent several pressing invitations including the goal we conceded. In the second half, it could have been in the end 4-4, we had another great opportunity by Anthony Elanga, who was one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but they also had quite a few opportunities. It was a bit erratic in the second half, but I still believe it was the right decision to give some of those young players the opportunity to play. Tom Heaton made his debut for Manchester United. Also, for quite a few of the experienced players, it was important to get game-time.”
What. A. Start! ?
? @MasonGreenwood #MUFC | #UCL pic.twitter.com/JWTuqt7KHm
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 8, 2021
Ralf Rangnick reserved special praise for goalscorer Mason Greenwood, while also pointing out the area the young forward needs to improve. “He also showed, not only with the beautiful goal, also the way that he set up the opportunity for Juan Mata. That was brilliant. He is a massive talent. Right foot, left foot, good on the ball, also the way he set up the goal for Fred on Sunday. But still, it is about continuity. He has to develop physically, but technically for his age he is a great player, and my job is to develop him and make an athlete out of him and if he manages to do that, he can become a regular player for this club,” he explained.
Opening up about the goal United conceded, Ralf Rangnick detailed, “What really was a little bit annoying was the way we gave the goal away because we played too many balls into the first line of their pressing area, and this was also the case with the goal we conceded. We could have cleared the ball easily and whenever we played the ball into the second and third line, we were always dangerous. I told them that before the game, but they still played in that situation, a five-metre pass, and they were just waiting for that ball.”
