Rangnick urges patience but have Man Utd improved under him?
Stefan Bienkowski
- 7 Feb 2022 14:43 GMT
- 7 min read
Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has dismissed calls for an overhaul of the Old Trafford squad and believes the team are heading in the right direction.
Since Rangnick stepped into the role as successor to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the German manager has won six, drawn three and lost two games.
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While two defeats may not seem like much, one came most recently when Man Utd were knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties by Middlesbrough.
As such, many fans have begun to question whether the club is going in the right direction under the former Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig head coach.
However, Rangnick was quick to defend his side when asked about their qualities and doesn’t believe they lack the crucial talent to win games.
'Overall the team have improved'
"I don't know. I don't think so,” said Rangnick on Monday, when asked if his team needed substantial changes in the summer window.
“Overall, the development of the team and performances over the last couple of weeks have improved.
“There are two points of criticism that we all have to face. One: we wasted too many clear-cut chances, 22 shots inside the box, 10 were massive opportunities and we should easily have been 3-0 up at HT. It should have been 6-1 or 6-2.
"And the other one was 10 secs before we conceded the goal, it was a perfect counter-pressing situation inside their half, we took away time but not the ball away from them and eight seconds later we were outnumbered in our box, it was a handball goal and I'm still convinced this goal should have been disallowed, but we shouldn't have allowed this situation.
"Those are the two things I fault with the team. We invested a week into the game plan and many of those things have been confirmed by the team and were shown on the pitch against Middlesbrough."
Have Man Utd improved under Rangnick?
Since taking over, Rangnick’s side have averaged a perfectly respectable 1.91 points per game, which is by no means bad but is also slightly underwhelming.
Similarly, the club have conceded 16 goals in his first 11 games, which certainly doesn’t suggest that they’ve managed to plug the holes in defence.
However, there’s no denying that Rangnick is mostly avoiding defeats and over the course of the last five match days, only Manchester City and Wolves have picked up more points in the Premier League.
