Manchester United picked up our first clean sheet of the season at home in the league and won three points in our 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace. In a game that we dominated, our decision making and finishing in the final third was lacking, until Fred stepped up to score a fantastic goal.
After the game, Ralf Rangnick spoke to Sky Sports about his happiness with the performance, especially given how limited his time with the players had been.
I’m more than happy. First of all, most importantly, we won the game. Second, we had a clean sheet, third I think we no doubt deserved to win, because we had control of the game. 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.
But it was clear that you cannot play the whole game, 90 minutes, on this kind of intensity level. But, still, even after that we had control of the game. Second half, we started the game well and, in the end, we deserved to win. I am more than happy with the clean sheet. Beautiful goal with this weak right foot from Fred. It was about gaining control and we had control most of the time of the game.
To be honest, I was positively surprised by the physical state, intensity and performance of the players. 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.
It’s always easier to build on things when you’re successful. I want the players to believe in this kind of football. We continue in this direction, produce further clean sheets, and get better at creating chances ourselves. There is still space for improvement but today was more important for me to see how they played against the ball.
