FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 1, Palace 0
Please allow him to introduce himself – he’s a man of wit and taste. Ralf Rangnick, in his first game as interim manager, made some intriguing decisions, and one of them involved choosing his words carefully. In fact, a single word: ‘Chapeau!’ He was using it to salute Cristiano Ronaldo’s work off the ball. Anyone else in his position might have expressed that sentiment, grateful that the biggest of United’s celebrities had come to meet him in the middle, but nobody else would have said ‘Chapeau’. A German manager was praising a Portuguese superstar by using a French word in a distinctly English way. The only United manager of the past you could imagine conceivably saying something like it was Dave Sexton, whose stint finished 40 years ago. It seemed like a sign of someone who is his own man and knows his own mind.
When does no change mean all change? When it’s Rangnick at the wheel. He sprang a surprise by sticking with Michael Carrick’s starting XI from the win over Arsenal, but the same names didn’t play the same game. In the space of only one training session, Rangnick changed the formation, bringing in his own-brand 4-2-2-2. Ronaldo, often too isolated under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, had company – a role made for Edinson Cavani, but also filled quite naturally by Marcus Rashford, with his runs in behind. Bruno Fernandes moved across to inside left, a slot he naturally drifts into anyway. Jadon Sancho came in from the wing to inside right, which didn’t really suit him. For his next trick, Rangnick has to make sure Sancho doesn’t slide down a snake after finally finding a ladder.
The 4-2-2-2 is more promising than Solskjaer’s favourite formation, the 4-2-3-1, for a simple reason. It’s a better fit for this squad. Solskjaer often had three No.10s on the bench – the lesser-spotted Jesse Lingard, the even-lesser-spotted Donny van de Beek, and the least-of-all-spotted Juan Mata. All good players, they made a bad set of subs because they were all treading on each other’s toes. In Rangnick’s system, there should often be room for one of them in the XI, next to Fernandes; sometimes even two, with van de Beek adaptable enough to sit in the first of the twos, alongside Fred or Scott McTominay. That will give the third of the three No.10s – usually Mata – with a decent chance of coming off the bench for more than two minutes. If this isn’t the plan, Rangnick should let Mata leave in January. He could be the next Adam Lallana, adding flair and flow to a team toiling in mid-table.
Fred grabbed the headlines with his winner, and rightly so. We thought he couldn’t shoot: it turns out he could, but only with his wrong foot. Chapeau to him too, but his big moment owed plenty to two other players. Diogo Dalot recorded his second pre-assist in 72 hours, and both with his left foot – the superb reverse ball to Rashford against Arsenal, and now a crisp pass to Mason Greenwood in the box. Greenwood, who had replaced Sancho at inside right, still had a lot to do: with four defenders on him, all worried that he would whip in one of his snap shots, he shielded the ball like an old pro and laid it off to Fred, who was unmarked. He couldn’t have done it better if his name had been Romelu Lukaku. After a stuttering few months, blighted first by the return of Ronaldo and then by a bout of Covid, Greenwood was back to showing his thrilling potential.
As much as the formation, Rangnick changed the mentality. His United, while sharing the teamwork and toughness of Carrick’s United, were much more attacking. They went hunting for the ball in Palace’s third of the pitch, showing a sudden appetite for the press. The full-backs – both spare parts under Solskjaer – flourished by playing as wing-backs, and even the centre-backs came marauding forward. All this should have invited the counter-attack, but Palace’s only real chance came after a corner, when Jordan Ayew somehow turned a simple tap-in into a harmless cross. Had that gone in, Fred’s goal would not have come along a minute later, and Rangnick might well have joined Solskjaer (and Pep Guardiola) in being embarrassed at home by Palace. Fine margins, as Ole liked to say. Rangnick’s United will need to be more clinical. Only three of their 17 attempts (and one of Ronaldo’s five) were on target. But this bolder mindset bodes well for the next few games: Norwich, Brentford, Brighton, Newcastle and Burnley – the bottom three, plus two teams that have faded after a strong start. It will be 2022 before we find out whether Rangnick is cutting his cloth according to the fixture list (as Carrick did) or setting out his stall the way he wants to play, even against the big boys.
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