#PLStories – Ralf Rangnick reveals Manchester United players have right mentality but playing as team is the issue #MUFC
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Ralf Rangnick
Ralf Rangnick has no intention of appointing Cristiano Ronaldo as Manchester United’s captain on a permanent basis after he questioned the mentality of some of the younger players at the club. The dressing room dynamic is unrecognisable from the one Ronaldo entered as a teenager in 2003 when United were the reigning champions. Harry Maguire’s position as captain has been regularly questioned amid his poor form this season and Ronaldo skippered United in Maguire’s absence against Wolves last week.
However, Rangnick said he is not about to strip the defender of the title. “Right now, I don’t see a reason to do that because Harry has been the captain so far and as long as Harry is playing he will be the captain. And if he’s not playing then someone else will have to be the captain. This can change from game to game just depending on who is playing.
Ralf Rangnick said “It’s not only Cristiano we have. Edinson, we have. Harry, we have, quite a few other older players, David de Gea in goal, Victor Lindelof, Bruno [Fernandes]. We have enough experienced older players who can not only be role models themselves in training, on the pitch and in games, but also in all those conversations that happen in the locker room or when they are together in the hotel for away games or home games, this has to happen. In a team, in a united team that happens automatically and I can only invite and challenge and tell all the players, also the older players, to do that on a regular basis because that helps even more so in a team that we have currently.”
Ronaldo stressed United players had to have the ‘right mentality’ regardless of whether they accept or ignore his criticism if they are to have a successful run-in. Rangnick did not question Ronaldo’s comments and believes individual players’ struggles are not for a lack of effort, citing Marcus Rashford’s dismal performance in the FA Cup third round win over Aston Villa.
Ralf Rangnick said “In order to speak about that we need to discuss what mentality means. As I said, so far if one of our players in the game doesn’t give his very best and put all the effort into it then I will address that, you can be assured of that. So far I haven’t seen that. But with some players they start well. We speak about Marcus Rashford for example, I think in the first 20 minutes against Villa he was good he was on fire, he was emotionally involved but then after the first 30 minutes he got worse and he didn’t play on the same kind of energetic level he did in the first half.-an-hour. We need to speak about that. I do that regularly: does he need a helping hand? What does that take? So I don’t see any of the players who don’t care about the club or who don’t want to perform to the best and highest possible level. I think this has to happen in every single training session and in every single game and, of course, it’s also about what happens after situations during the game. If things don’t go the right way you have to behave in a certain manner and it’s also about being role models not only the older ones like Cristiano, but also the younger ones and how you deal with those situations. As a striker we all know – I was not a striker myself as a player – but as a striker, it’s all about playing well, scoring goals and getting assists and if that does not happen over a period of time it is not so easy. As long as [Rashford is] trying to give his very best, and he did that in training, there were quite a few training sessions in the last couple of weeks where he trained on a really high level and that’s why I always gave him the chance to play again. As long as he does that he will always be on my list to play and be in the starting XI. Of course, it’s about showing that on a regular basis and continuously playing on a high level and, again for him, there is still room for improvement the same is true of other young players. We have so many top, talented players and it brings me back to what Cristiano said, we have to work and develop as a team together and if it’s necessary to speak in a very direct manner to the boys it helps a lot, even in the locker room. If Cristiano, for example, or any of the other players address that to the players directly on the pitch or in the dressing room they are more than welcome to do that. I will do that myself as a coach and my coaching staff in the pre and post-match video we do with the team and on the pitch but we can only develop individual players if we develop the performances of the team, this is the only way. This is about getting good results which will raise the confidence level and then we can also develop the players individually, it doesn’t work the other way around. If I look back to the last six weeks since I came I think in all the games, and you could see that against Aston Villa on Monday, every player tried his very best, they were fighting for each other, they were fighting to go through and proceed to the next round. From my perspective, I think there’s always space for improvement, you can still get better. But the younger players we have are highly talented and we have enough older players and, in the end, it’s a team sport, it’s a game where we have to play together and the older players and the young players have to play as a team and have to be united on the pitch.”
In an interview on Thursday, Ronaldo said younger players at United do not respond well to criticism and warned if they did not improve their performance level United would have a ‘nightmare’ season. United are seventh in the Premier League and trail leaders City by 22 points in a season they intended to challenge for the title.
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