United players surpass Rangnick’s expectations in his first match

Ralf Rangnick says the manner of Manchester United’s performancesurpassedhisexpectationsastheinterimmanager’sreignbeganwithvictory against Crystal Palace.

The 63-year-old watched Thursday’s frantic 3-2 win against Arsenal from the directors’ box at Old Trafford, where he was on the sidelines for the first time on Sunday as Patrick Vieira’s men came to the north west.

Rangnick had precious little time to work with the playersgiventheswiftturnaround, but United played on the front foot from the outset with impressive intensity and energy.

Their performance petered off after that breathless opening 30 minutes but Fred stepped up late on to secure an important 1-0 victory with a superb curling effort from the edge of the box.

“Overall I am more than happy,” United boss Rangnick said. “I was positively surprised by the physical state and intensity.

“The first half hour was amazing. I felt it was extremely high tempo, high intensity, always on the front. The only thing that was missing in this firsthalfhourwasscoringone or two, if not three, goals.

“But it was clear that you cannot play the whole game, 90 minutes, on this kind of intensitylevel.But,still,evenafter that we had control of the game.

"Second half, we started the game well and, in the end, we deserve to win.

“I am more than happy with the clean sheet. Beautiful goal with this weak right foot from Fred and, as I said, for me, it was about gaining control and we had control most of the time of the game.

“Maybe the last three or four minutes, of course, they took all the risk they could, we had to defend a few corner kicks and free-kicks but wedidthatinaverybraveway.

“Harry (Maguire) being injured, coming back again. It was a perfect first game for us to play.”

Rangnick’s focus quickly turns to Wednesday’s Champions League match against Young Boys and the Premier League trip to Norwich.

“I must admit I was surprised,” Rangnick said of the group’s immediate response.

“I was a bit surprised because not only did we play Thursday, a late kick-off, we had two days less to recover compared to Crystal Palace and we had not even a full training session because it was 45 minutes, it was pouring (with rain).”