Ralf Rangnick acknowledges Cristiano Ronaldo is “not a pressing monster”, as he admitted compromising on his preferred style of play during an underwhelming six months as Manchester United’s interim manager.
Rangnick will take charge of his final United game at Crystal Palace on Sunday before moving into a consultancy role with the club, while reports suggest Ronaldo will not feature at Selhurst Park after suffering a hip flexor issue.
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The 37-year-old has scored 18 Premier League goals since returning to Old Trafford at the beginning of the campaign. Despite United enduring a woeful season under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Rangnick, that represents his second-most prolific campaign in the competition after 2007-08 (when he scored 31 times as the Red Devils won the title.)
However, several commentators have pointed out the Portuguese striker’s lack of off-the-ball work is an awkward fit with Rangnick’s preferred high-intensity pressing style.
United rank just 12th among Premier League sides for possessions won in the final third this term, with 162, some way short of Liverpool (278), and Manchester City (231), the two highest-pressing sides in the division.
The Red Devils also rank 12th for possessions won in the middle third of the pitch, with 851, with Rangnick struggling to instil a high-octane style at Old Trafford.
While praising Ronaldo for his goalscoring prowess, Rangnick acknowledged that pressing has never been Ronaldo’s forte, hinting he may have made too many compromises on his coaching style during his time in charge.
“Cristiano Ronaldo, and I’m not blaming him at all, he did great in those games. But he’s not a pressing monster,” Rangnick told a press conference ahead of the trip to Palace.
“He’s not a player, even when he was a young player, who was crying, shouting, ‘hooray, the other team has got the ball, where can we win balls?’
“The same with quite a few other players, so we had to make some compromises at one stage, maybe we made a few too many – that’s also possible.”
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Rangnick has also been critical of United’s lack of January transfer activity in the past, revealing this month that the club’s board overruled his desire to sign another striker in January.
Earlier this month, the former RB Leipzig boss said: “I spoke to the board and said: ‘shouldn’t we at least speak and try and analyse if we could get a player either on loan or as a permanent deal?’ But in the end the answer was no.”
However, as Rangnick prepares to make way for Ajax boss Erik ten Hag, he reassured United’s fanbase that they can expect arrivals in the upcoming transfer window.
“We spoke about the last transfer window in January where we and the board decided not to sign any players, but this is different now,” Rangnick added.
“In this summer window there will be some new players and Erik will also have some influence on which kind of player he wants.
“That will happen in this window and hopefully the next two windows, and I think it’s obvious to everybody, for the owners, the board, and every supporter, we need to increase and raise the level of quality within the squad.”
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