GIFT RAP FOR Rangnick blasts flops as
JUST when it was starting to look like Everton would need a miracle to stay up along came Manchester United – as playing Ralf Rangnick’s men at the moment really is a gift from the gods. As the home fans left at the final whistle they may have been tempted to nip into St Luke’s to offer up a prayer of thanks.
Everton will have to perform better than this to still be in the Premier League next season, but boss Frank Lampard will take his points any way he can get them.
They got a huge break when Anthony Gordon’s speculative first-half strike took a huge deflection off Harry Maguire to leave David De Gea stranded.
Their only other shot on target came courtesy of another deflection, Richarlison’s effort clipping Victor Lindelof and forcing De Gea into a spectacular save.
But the Toffees ran themselves to a standstill, put their bodies on the line – and United had no response.
Jordan Pickford saved well from Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo in the early stages.and the Everton keeper flicked out an instinctive wrist in injury-time to prevent Ronaldo steering home an equaliser United didn’t deserve.
“We don’t score, we don’t even create proper chances to score,” was De Gea’s damning verdict.
When told about his goalkeeper’s assessment, Rangnick admitted: “I totally agree. If you don’t score in 95 minutes against a team who conceded three goals at Burnley, then you can’t expect to get anything.
“For the first 25 minutes we were in full control and you could literally feel they were crumbling.
“But we did not take advantage of that.their first shot on goal – a deflected shot – changed the game and it changed the atmosphere in the stadium.
“They just defended in the second half and we were not able to break that wall down.”
United went into the game with pretensions of qualifying for the Champions League.
Talk about delusions of grandeur. It’s one win in seven now and they are on course to post 63 points – their lowest total of the Premier League era.
Erik ten Hag might want to think again about becoming the club’s sixth manager in nine years. He’ll be taking charge of the biggest club in the Europa Conference League next season – if he’s lucky.
Rangnick added: “If you don’t score goals in games like this, it will be difficult to qualify for Europe.
“I don’t see a connection between this performance and a new manager coming in.you can’t let anyone have that kind of excuse.
“The players themselves should be eager to play European football but if we play like we did today we don’t deserve to qualify.”
United’s fans have been given a reality check since Sir Alex
Ferguson retired. But even a travelling support that is usually raucous was stunned into silence by what their team served up.
Everton had picked up just six points from a possible 27 since Lampard replaced Rafa Benitez in
ebruary. Last Wednesday night, he spectre of relegation loomed ven larger when they were beaten y Burnley at Turf Moor.
The Toffees’ lack of confidence as clear early on and the ncouragement from the home fans as just starting to turn when ordon struck in the 26th minute.
Lampard said: “I feel like we’ve een due a deflection and I was leased it was Anthony because he oves the club. He feels it – no onder the fans love him.
“I have to give a lot of credit to he lads. It isn’t easy after two
efeats in a week to go again against a team fit and full of quality.some people in the dressing room have been calculating how many points we need and looking at the table.
“But that means nothing to me. We absolutely know that it’s in our hands and that this win is just three points.”