Rangnick questions Man Utd’s ‘aggression’ as he bemoans ‘soft decision’

Ralf Rangnick has suggested that his Manchester United side were not “aggressive” enough as they dropped points against Burnley on Tuesday night.

Man Utd went into their midweek game versus Burnley wanting to cement their place in the top four.

They started well as they were much the better side in the opening half. Paul Pogba gave them the lead in the 18th minute.

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Rangnick’s men also had two goals chalked off before the break. The first was for offside and the second came as Pogba was adjudged to have fouled Erik Pieters in the build-up.

Burnley did not have a single shot in the first half but they managed to equalise in the 47th minute. Jay Rodriguez held off Harry Maguire before he fired the ball into the net past David De Gea.

The Clarets defended well as they earned themselves a point. Man Utd are now fifth in the table as West Ham beat Watford to move above them.

As quoted by BBC Sport, Rangnick suggested that United’s second disallowed goal was a “very soft decision”:

“We scored three goals! That is different to Friday. The second one that was disallowed, the linesman flagged for a foul but ten seconds after the incident. This was a very soft decision I must say,” Rangnick said.

“Again we played an excellent first half. We controlled and dominated the game. We scored three goals but two were disallowed.

“In the second half, we were not aggressive enough. It was clear they would come out and be aggressive. The way we allowed them to score, we didn’t defend the whole situation.

“A frustrating night for us because we should have won that game comfortably.

“We scored three goals in the first half so I cannot blame the team for not having a killer instinct in the first half.

“In the end, it was also a little question of luck. One point for a performance like this is just not enough.”

Maguire stated after the draw that Man Utd needed to be “more clinical” against Burnley:

“I think you saw the first half. We had control. We have got to win the game with the amount of chances we created. We had to get that second goal. Two points dropped.

“We wanted to dominate the game but for sure when you come to Burnley away you are not going to dominate for 90 minutes. We had to see iit out better. We conceded like against Middlesbrough when they had that spell of pressure. We have got to be that bit more clinical.

“It was a disappointing goal on our behalf to concede. We came out in the second half a bit sloppy. We had long enough in the game to come back from that and try and find the winner.

“We demand on ourselves to win the football match so it is disappointing.”