Ralf Rangnick is off to a positive start in English football, and became the first German manager in the first division of England to register a win in his first game, a feat which wasn’t achieved by four of his former students in Ralph Hassenhuttl, David Wagner, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel.
Manchester United registered a 1-0 win over Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace on Sunday, with Fred scoring a stunning winner for the Red Devils.
The Brazilian midfielder, who is often at the receiving end of severe criticism, relished the freedom to move higher up the pitch and made more ground than any other footballer on the pitch. After a defensively resolute performance, the Brazilian chipped in with a sensational curling shot from outside the box for his winner, which came off his wrong foot.
Rangnick, the new interim boss who had just one training session before the Palace game, got to spend just 45 minutes on the training ground because of the heavy rains in Manchester on Saturday.
However, he was palpably surprised by the speed at which his players adapted to some of his instructions, and was thoroughly impressed with their performance.
“The first half hour was amazing. I felt it was extremely high tempo, high intensity, always on the front. The only thing that was missing in this first half hour was scoring one or two, if not three, goals.
Not only did we play in the late kick-off on Thursday, but we also had two days fewer than Crystal Palace to recover. I didn’t expect us to play at that level after only one-and-a-half training days together with them,”
the German said after the match.
United had total control on the game from the kick-off. They had the better chances going forward but lacked the cutting edge to get the goal that could’ve separated both teams. Palace had some good chances on the counter too, with Jordan Ayew missing out a golden chance in the second half, but besides that, the Old Trafford side had dominated the game and walked away with three crucial points.
