The Football Faithful
·8 December 2021
Rangnick insists Man Utd were simply ‘okay’ after makeshift side draw 1-1 with Young Boys
Rangnick insists Man Utd were simply ‘okay’ after makeshift side draw 1-1 with Young Boys | OneFootball
Manchester United concluded their group stage of the Champions League tonight with a 1-1 draw against Swiss side Young Boys at Old Trafford.
New boss Ralf Rangnick rotated heavily from the side that beat Crystal Palace last Sunday, the German coach making 11 changes and handing a chance to impress to several squad players and academy graduates.
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United’s makeshift side would get off to a perfect start, when Mason Greenwood found the net after eight minutes, the 20-year-old attacker brilliantly hooking a volley into the bottom corner from a Luke Shaw cross.
Rangnick’s side continued to carve out chances throughout the opening half, with both Amad and Juan Mata spurning excellent chances to extend their teams lead.
The Red Devils would be punished scoring a second just before half-time when Young Boys equalised via a superb curling effort from the edge of the area by midfielder Fabian Riede.
In all honesty, the second-half descend into a scrappy affair that always looked destined to end in a stalemate with Anthony Elanga missing the best of the opportunities for the home side and David Wagner’s Young Boys outfit spurning a host of half chances.
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The result meant little to United with the Old Trafford outfit having already qualified for the knockout stages as group winners and speaking afterwards Rangnick wasn’t overly pleased with his sides showing although he conceded that such a heavily rotated team was always going to struggle.
“I was fully aware before the game that with this team that we played today, we haven’t played together as team,” Rangnick told BT Sport.
”The first half hour we did quite okay. We had a few unforced errors but had control of the game. We should have been 2-0 or 3-0 up. We had some great opportunities but we didn’t score. We were a bit sloppy with those situations.
“After we conceded the equaliser we were not defending high enough or pro-active enough. If in the end, the score would have been 4-4, then nobody could have complained. There were quite a few debuts and game time for players who desperately need game time. I wouldn’t say I was happy but it was okay.
“It was also good to see Luke Shaw back and hopefully he can be a candidate for the Norwich game. Aaron Wan-Bissaka got two knocks so we will have to see how this develops. It was an experiment but I did it on purpose as I wanted to save the players’ energy for Norwich.
“What was a little bit annoying was we gave the ball away and played too many balls into the first line of their area. Whenever we played the ball into the second or third line, we were always dangerous. I told them that before the game but they still played into that first line.”
Next up for Man United is an away Premier League clash against Norwich next Sunday evening.
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