Covid has hampered Man Utd progress: Ralf Rangnick

Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick said that the upheaval caused by the coronavirus crisis had hindered his efforts to stamp his authority on the under-performing Manchester United squad.

United are unbeaten in all four games they have played under the German, who replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on an interim basis late last month.

🗯 @ECavaniOfficial was on the agenda during the interim manager's pre-match media briefing…#MUFC | #MUNBUR

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 29, 2021

But a Covid-19 outbreak at the club meant United had not played a match for more than two weeks before Monday’s disappointing 1-1 Premier League draw at struggling Newcastle.

United, who host Burnley on Thursday, are seventh in the Premier League table, seven points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, but with two games in hand.

Asked if he had achieved as much as he had wanted in his first 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 (training base) 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.”

Rangnick said his players had looked good in the few training sessions they had managed before the Newcastle game, which made Monday’s performance a “negative surprise”.