Ralph Rangnicks perfect debut
Ralph Rangnick wins his first match for Manchester United. A successful premiere can only be achieved with hard work, performance is not glamorous. Rangnick shouldn’t care. Finally, United carry out their most important goal.
sAlf Rangnick clenched his left fist and jumped slightly for joy. The jubilation of the 1-0 goal in the 77th minute against Crystal Palace only lasted for a brief period. The new Manchester United boss immediately got serious again and discussed with his assistant how the team should take the lead over time. They obviously found the right way – United won the match 1-0 (0-0) and gave Rangnick a perfect debut in the Premier League.
The 63-year-old has a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. This was especially evident in the second half, when Manchester were back in the rut that had tasked Rangnick’s predecessor Ole Gunnar Solkesir with the task.
The team acted very offensively and found no way against intelligently defending the guests. Alex Telles’ free kick hit the crossbar – it was Manchester’s only dangerous move between the first half and the 68th minute.
Only in the first half showed that Rangnick wanted to see football. His attackers played the role of the first defenders and prevented the opponent from building the game early. Time and time again, Crystal Palace defenders played poor passes or randomly hit the ball because Manchester attacked early.
solid manchester defense
The pressure increased with each minute, but Cristiano Ronaldo and his companions remained harmless in front of goal until the end of the first half. Big opportunities to take the lead were missed. It came in the 77th minute, when Fred, after a display by Marcus Rashford, hit the ball superbly from the edge of the penalty area to make it 1-0 into the corner.
It was the height of an ordinary game. Rangnick shouldn’t care, after all, his team carried out one goal above all – they conceded no goal. So far this season, Manchester United have conceded 24 goals in 14 matches. Rangnick had openly denounced these defensive weaknesses when he was introduced and declared that they needed improvement.
“In a perfect world, we would soon be playing for trophies. That is the club’s goal,” Rangnick said before the match. Despite this win, Rangnicks Thiem is already 11 points behind leaders Chelsea this season.