Man United were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Middlesbrough and speaking ahead of their next Premier League, manager Ralf Rangnick has highlighted two major issues that needs addressing.
United had the chance to kill off the FA Cup tie in the first half itself but in the end, they were knocked out on penalties. The Old Trafford outfit had numerous chances to put the game to bed and as per their manager, they need to take their chances and put the ball into the back of the net.
“I don’t think so because, overall, I think the development of the team and our performances in the last couple of weeks have improved, including, by the way, the cup game,” Ralf said in his press conference.
“There are two points of criticism that the team has to face and we all have to face. Number one, we just wasted too many clear-cut chances.
“As I said, 22 shots from inside the box, and at least 10 of them were really massive opportunities and we should have been up easily 3-0 at half-time, and in the end, it should have been 6-1 or 6-2. This was one point of criticism that we have to face.”
Cristiano Ronaldo has now missed FOUR PeNalTies in his Man United career:
2006 vs. West Ham
2007 vs. West Ham
2008 vs. barcelona
2022 vs. MiddlesbroughThen Declan Rice said 😲 pic.twitter.com/4TdFckygNi
— D’ stats 🤭 (@alidiligent39) February 4, 2022
The second point of criticism that Ralf Rangnick had was that his side failed to recognize the danger for the Middlesbrough goal and as per the German his players should be more aware of where and when the threats are coming from.
He added: “The other one was the 10 seconds before we conceded that handball goal, as I may call it, it was a perfect counter-pressing situation on the sideline in the middle of their half. We took away time, the only thing we forgot is taking away the ball from them. This led to a situation where, eight seconds later, we were outnumbered in our box and allowed them to score that handball goal.
“And although it was a handball, I’m still convinced that this goal should have been disallowed, but we shouldn’t have allowed this situation to happen in our box.
“Those are the two things I have to fault the team but, apart from that, again, we invested the whole week into the game-plan, into improving our game in possession of the ball and very many of those things have been confirmed by the team and shown on the pitch against Middlesbrough.”
Can the Man United manager turn things around?
Man United created 25 chances in that FA Cup game but in the 120 minutes, they managed to score only a single goal. Ronaldo missed a penalty and Bruno Fernandes hit the post despite having an open goal at his disposal.
Bruno Fernandes how do you miss 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/nPQ5cwf8eO
— CF Comps (@CF_Comps) February 4, 2022
Manchester United had 30 shots throughout the game and they scored the same number of goals as Middlesbrough had, despite the Championship side having only three shots on target.
Rangnick sides should have scored three or four goals in the first 45 minutes itself but their inability to be clinical helped boost Boro’s confidence.
And this has been a major issue for United under their interim boss that they cannot continue with the same intensity for the full 90 minutes which gives their opponents opportunities to creep back into the match.
This is also massively a fitness issue and to play the Liverpool brand of football each and every week, the Man United players will need a couple of months to get into shape and pull up their levels. This is why the United board have brought in Ralf Rangnick so that the German can condition the players before a Ten Hag or Pochettino becomes a full-time manager.
