Ralf Rangnick has admitted he has not made as much progress as he might have hoped in stamping his authority on Manchester United.
Despite being unbeaten in four games in all competitions since replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the Old Trafford helm on an interim basis, the highly-rated German coach has been frustrated in his efforts to implement his methods by the Covid-19 lay-off which saw his side not play for 16 days before Monday night’s 1-1 Premier League draw at struggling Newcastle.
Asked if he had achieved as much as he had wanted to in his initial weeks in charge, Rangnick said: “Of course not.
“Every coach, every ambitious coach — and there’s no difference between other coaches and myself in that area — wants to take faster steps and larger steps forward.
“But in order to do that, you need to be able to train.
“As you know, we had to close Carrington for four days. Before that we had eight or nine outfield players in training, so directly after the Norwich game, and they only came back in small bits and pieces.
“The last three days we were almost back to full strength with regard to the size of the squad, but we couldn’t do that much in training.
“On the other hand, in those two-three training sessions, the team looked good and therefore it was really a bit of a, in Monday’s game, negative surprise, the way that we played with regard to game speed, game tempo and physicality.”
United misfired alarmingly on Tyneside as a lack of cohesion in attack and uncertainty at the back very nearly cost them, and they head into Thursday evening’s home clash with Burnley with something to prove.
Central defender Raphael Varane made his first appearance since November 2nd at St James’ Park in a central defensive partnership with Harry Maguire which was far from convincing, a fact which will not have gone unnoticed by Clarets boss Sean Dyche and strikers Chris Wood and Jay Rodriguez.
However, Rangnick said: “Rafa hasn’t played for the last five or six weeks and even before the Tottenham game, he was injured, so in total in the last three months, he hasn’t played that many games.
“Yes, he made a mistake before the first goal that we conceded, but apart from that, I think he was okay. I wouldn’t say that he was outstanding and the same with Harry, but they did okay.
“Our problem was again that we allowed too many transitional moments and this is not only a problem of the centre-backs, it’s a problem of the whole team.”
Defender Victor Lindelof missed the game at Newcastle after testing positive for coronavirus, but striker Edinson Cavani marked his return from a tendon injury having also been out of action since November 2nd with the equaliser after coming off the bench.
Dyche, meanwhile, has dismissed claims that Burnley are taking on misfiring United at the perfect time.
United have scored only four goals in as many games under Rangnick, and the Red Devils’ performance in Monday’s 1-1 draw at Newcastle was lambasted by fans and pundits alike.
“They’ve had a couple of challenging games where they haven’t maybe looked like what we’d expect from a Man U side,” Dyche said ahead of the Clarets’ trip to Old Trafford. “But within that they still find key moments and have still got some very high-level players.
“They have found ways of making moments that count even though they are not purring.
“We wouldn’t be naive enough to turn up and think there is a perfect time to play them.
“We know it’s still tough to go to Old Trafford and we need everything on our side to be ready to play. But we will be ready to play.”
Burnley have done well at Old Trafford in recent seasons, losing there in April but winning one and drawing three of their four visits before that.
Dyche said: “We’ve been there when they’ve been flying, when there have been question marks.
“We’ve taken on the challenge, gone there with the right mentality and that’s key. We have delivered, the performance levels have been good.
“When you play the top sides — and they are still a top side — they maybe need to have a softer performance and you have a strong one.
“I saw them play against Newcastle and a lot was made by pundits about the performance, but they still find some really important moments and you’ve got to bear that in mind.”
United captain Harry Maguire complained after the Newcastle game that their 16-day coronavirus-enforced break had done them no favours.
Burnley themselves have not played since December 12th after games against Watford, Aston Villa and Everton were called off due to Covid-19 cases among the opposition.
The break has left the Clarets with four games in hand on some of their relegation rivals and Dyche unsure what effect it will have on his players.
“We’ll see. Hopefully it’s not too big a concern,” Dyche said on what will be an 18-day break from Premier League action.
“Of course we’d liked to have had the games come our way. I think it’s helpful to keep playing as the season progresses.
“We’ve done in-house work the best we can. We couldn’t really get a reserve fixture, but we’ve made sure we’ve used the time wisely.
“We’ve done what we think we can to be in good shape.”
