WOLVES BITE MAN U
United suffer first defeat under coach Rangnick
Manchester, Jan. 4: Wolves ended Ralf Rangnick’s unbeaten start as Manchester United interim manager on Monday as Joao Moutinho’s strike earned a deserved 1-0 win at Old Trafford.
A first home defeat to Wolves in 42 years leaves United still seventh in the Premier League table, four points adrift of the top four.
But it was another lacklustre performance that was just as concerning as the result for Rangnick as the Red Devils were thoroughly outplayed.
“We didn’t play well at all, neither individually or collectively,” said Rangnick, who had taken 10 points from his first four games in charge.
“We didn’t press at all. We tried but after 10 or 15 minutes we were not able to get into those pressing situations. The games show we still have a lot of work to do,” he added.
An injury crisis at centre-back with captain Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly all missing, forced Rangnick to hand Phil Jones his first Premier League appearance in two years.
But the former England international was one of few United players to emerge with any credit from a ragged display that raises questions over their chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Cristiano Ronaldo was named United captain for just the second time in the absence of Maguire.
In his new year message on social media, Ronaldo said he was “not happy” with the state of affairs at United and that “we have to work harder, play better and deliver way more than we are delivering right now.”
However, there was no sign of improvement as Ronaldo was kept quiet up against a number of his Portuguese international teammates.
David De Gea was the difference between the sides when United won 1-0 at Molineux in August and the Spaniard was again his side’s saviour with a finger tip save to turn Ruben Neves’ volley over early on.
Wolves managed more shots in the first half than they had in their previous three matches combined.
But Bruno Lage’s men have scored just 14 goals in 19 league games and again failed to make their control of the game show in the scoreline.
“It is one more victory,” said Lage. — AFP