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Ralf Rangnick
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Ian MacNicol / Getty Images
After a two-week corona break, Manchester United has struggled to prevent the first defeat under coach Ralf Rangnick.
The English football record champions parted ways with relegation candidate Newcastle United on Monday evening after an overall poor performance in the away league game 1: 1 (0: 1).
Substitute Edinson Cavani (71st minute) saved at least one point for Manchester after falling behind due to Allan Saint-Maximin (7th).
After Rangnick took over as interim coach at the beginning of December, Man United had won both league games 1-0 and at the end of the Champions League group stage they played 1-1 against Young Boys Bern. Before Christmas, two Red Devils Premier League games for superstar Cristiano Ronaldo were postponed after several corona-related failures in the team.
After defender Raphaël Varane lost the ball, Saint-Maximin gave Newcastle an early lead with a shot falling from 14 meters.
Manchester struggled for a long time, Rangnick replaced Cavani and former Dortmund's Jadon Sancho at the second half.
Ex-national player Gary Neville criticized the United professionals as a TV expert during the break: “Ralf Rangnick will not be fired because he only had two or three weeks with them.
But they'll get a lot of coaches fired if they keep doing this because it's a really, really bad performance. "
Newcastle is closer to victory
In the second half, goalkeeper David de Gea prevented Saint-Maximin (47.) from going 2-0 with a strong reflex. Manchester pushed more and more, veteran Cavani made the balance in the margin. Shortly before the end, Newcastle hit the post and de Gea saved again. Since the favorites' final offensive was also unsuccessful, United has slipped to seventh place for the time being, but has even more games to play compared to several better-placed teams. Newcastle remain penultimate with only eleven points from 19 games.
Rangnick did not want to use the corona history of the game as the only reason for the poor performance: "It's also a question of rhythm, but we shouldn't look for excuses," said the interim coach.
“We have to improve and play more physically and precisely when we have the ball.
I wasn't happy with our performance. "
cev / dpa