Alan Shearer has questioned what is happening on the Manchester United training ground with their underperforming stars showing they have “zero knowledge” when it comes to pressing.
Ralf Rangnick was hired as interim boss in December of last year, with a glowing reputation as the ‘Godfather of Gegenpressing’ with disciples including Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel. It was hoped then that the German would be able to impart his wisdom on a squad which had become lazy and lethargic under his predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But with just four games of his stint in the dugout remaining, the Red Devils still resemble a shell of a Premier League team and are miles off the pace when it comes to the top flight’s real contenders. United’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal has effectively confirmed they will miss out on the top four and the Champions League qualification which comes with it.
The travelling contingent of fans at The Emirates will have been expecting an immediate response by their team, following the meek capitulation vs Liverpool in midweek. However, any hopes of a positive reaction were extinguished in the opening exchanges, with the Gunners running out into a 2-0 lead and overwhelming their opponents.
Cristiano Ronaldo did get the visitors back into the game, but Granit Xhaka’s second-half thunderbolt ensured the points would rightly stay in North London and leave United conducting yet another post-match autopsy.
Rangnick has been highly critical of the players at his disposal during his five months in charge, but on Saturday looked inward and admitted he was unhappy with the job he’s done: “I’m not happy with the number of points or the way that we have defended,” he explained to TV2.
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“We concede too many goals, the way we defend around our box is just not good enough and we could easily have another six, eight or 10 points more, but we don’t and that’s why I’m not happy with what we have achieved.”
And Premier League record goalscorer Sheared pulled no punches in his assessment of the debacle against Arsenal and questioned what the United players are being taught, particularly when it comes to the way they press opposition players when they don’t have the ball.
“New manager, they’ve been battered by Liverpool, changed personnel - left Harry Maguire out - so I’m thinking ‘there’s going to be a bit of a response, certainly in the first 20 or 30 minutes and there wasn’t at all,” Shearer said on BBC ’s Match of the Day.
“Within three minutes you’ve had three big mistakes: Varane and Telles make one and you’ve also got one from Dalot letting Tavares go. There was no pressing, no organisation, the understanding of when or how to press in this team zero, probably because they don’t know how to do it or they are not working on it at all in training.
"They don’t know how or when to do it…what they’re doing on the training ground, I don’t know, because it doesn’t look like they’re doing much in terms of the pressing.”
