Ralf Rangnick believes Manchester United players would be better off not airing their grievances on social media after recent incidents with Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard.
Ralf Rangnick said: “It’s always better. I never ever read or communicate by those social media accounts. I don’t exist there (on social media) and wouldn’t have time to do that, so therefore it’s always better and I always communicate with the players directly. I did that with Anthony Martial and Jesse but maybe I’m a different kind of generation. My generation didn’t grow up with those kind of things. I can even remember a time when there were no mobile phones or internet, so for me it’s always better to communicate directly. But again it’s time now to look ahead. I know in both cases what I said to the players and what happened so for me there’s no reason to discuss this anymore.”
The absences of Lingard and Edinson Cavani for the FA Cup fourth round tie with Middlesbrough became more contentious in the wake of the defeat. Both players were granted additional time off as United lost 8-7 on penalties. The pair are due to be in the squad for the Premier League match at Burnley on Tuesday night, having returned to training on Monday. Cavani was granted additional leave in Uruguay after playing in the national team’s World Cup qualifying win over Venezuela last week and the 34-year-old has missed 17 United games this term.
Ralf Rangnick said: “He played 90 minutes for Uruguay and even with the original travelling schedule he couldn’t have been available for that game. Maybe he could have been on the bench and come on in extra-time, maybe, but even with him, if you miss that many chances – and we had enough top quality players not to miss those chances – in hindsight, it doesn’t make sense to speak about it. Edinson asked me two days after West Ham game if he could stay for one or two days longer in Uruguay. We didn’t know anything about Mason Greenwood, this only came up a week later, and this is why we allowed him to spend one or two days longer in Uruguay and come back for the game against Burnley.”
