NEWcastle, England - Ralph Rangnick now knows the true magnitude of the job he has taken as interim manager at Manchester United. Rangnik was rubbing his head in desperation when he was not shaking his head at the touchline during a disappointing 1-1 draw at Newcastle on Monday.
The only positive for the man who dismissed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer earlier this month was that his team's second-half performance was better than the first - but it would have been nearly impossible for Man United to be worse off.
"I didn't like the performance at all," Rangnik said. "Today we didn't control the game except for a few moments. It's about energy, physicality and who wins the second ball. We weren't doing our best in all those areas. Good thing we got a point But the performance should be better.
"You have to be willing and able to win those direct duels and that didn't happen often. We had a lot of goodies when we were in possession and even with the goal, it didn't make things easy." makes."
Thanks to Edinson Cavani's 70th-minute equalizer, which canceled Alain Saint-Maximin's seventh-minute opener, Rangnik was able to extend his unbeaten start as interim manager to four games, but Man United was still unable to open. Failed to impress in any of his games. Under former Schalke, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig coaches.
They have won 1–0 against Crystal Palace and Norwich City and a 1–1 draw against Young Boys in the Champions League and now against Newcastle at St James's Park.
A new face in the manager's chair fosters an early jump in performance and results as players who have failed under their predecessor find an added level of commitment and quality to impress their new boss. However, the bounce has been pretty flat under Rangnik, and now that the novelty factor has worn off after a month in charge, we are about to find out just how good he is as both coach and manager.
We already know about the players of Man United. He showed his shortcomings during four losses in seven matches, which cost Solskjaer his job. What Rangnik must do now is to find a way to keep the same players up his game steadily to get Man United back into the top four and the race for Champions League qualification – but in their gruesome, disgruntled first half against Newcastle. Considering the performance of the
Of course, there's some mitigation for Rangnik. It was Man United's first game for 16 days since the COVID-19 outbreak at Old Trafford, which led to the postponement of fixtures against Brentford and Brighton, so there was always an element of war against Eddie Howe's team. Was about to
But United are now back in full training for a week, so there can be no excuse for the way their first-half performances have seen them overtake the Newcastle team, which were given football lessons in their final outing. eight days earlier, when they had lost 4-0 at home to Manchester City.
Newcastle, with just one win throughout the season, dominated United in all areas of the pitch.
Newcastle had zeroed out wingers Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo in isolation. Meanwhile, Jonjo Shelvey and Joelinton controlled the middle third of the pitch against Fred and Scott McTominay, with Howe converting from a misfiring striker to a box-to-box midfielder. In defence, Harry Maguire and Rafael Varane played as novices in the centre-half for Man United, both losing their men and the ball during an error-strewn display on several occasions.
There was no energetic and coordinated pressure by United, and certainly no control of the game. All the while, Rangnik watched in a state of confusion and disbelief as his extremely expensive team performed like a group of strangers.
United began to look like a team until Cavani entered the field, a half-time replacement for Mason Greenwood. The former Paris Saint-Germain forward always brings a supreme work ethic and tenacity when he plays, and it rubs off on his teammates.
After they equalized, they gave United a chance to win the game when they missed the first opportunity, but they failed to take advantage of it and earned a point with a surprise save to negate Miguel Almiron in stoppage time. Relying on goalkeeper David de Gea to do the trick.
"Our biggest problem was our mistakes," Rangnik said. "Even when we scored, we weren't really controlling the game and making the right decisions.
"In three days we have the next game [against Burnley]. We can do better but we have to. We shouldn't be looking for excuses - we need to get better and be more physical."
United probably did enough to secure a draw against Newcastle, but if Rangnik can't motivate to accelerate, they will struggle to achieve anything against the better teams in the Premier League.
Rangnik needs to make sure that his back line is defended properly and somehow his midfielders to see that they can control a game and control the pace of the game. Fred and McTominay aren't good enough, and there's no point in anyone pretending otherwise at United.
The manager must also find out why Rashford's development has been stalled for 18 months and why Jadon Sancho has been unable to replicate his Bundesliga form at Borussia Dortmund with United in the Premier League.
Rangnik is no idiot, so he will discover that jobs like Manchester United aren't available when everything is going well. But he has a huge reputation and Man United needs to live up to it to revive underperforming players and find replacements for those who don't measure up.
Although the honeymoon period is definitely over. United have been failing for almost nine years now and the problems run deep.