New Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick was 'pleasantly surprised' with his side's performance as he was victorious in his first game in charge at Old Trafford.
Rangnick took over from previous interim manager Michael Carrick, who ended his short time at the helm with a 3-2 victory over Arsenal on Thursday.
Fred scored an unlikely late winner to give Rangnick not only his first win as a Premier League manager, but also the first win for a German manager in their first Premier League match.
🗣"To be honest I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the players."
Ralf Rangnick is more than happy with his first game in charge of Manchester United as they come away with three points and has no doubt that they deserved to win pic.twitter.com/K28iMzeLXS— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 5, 2021
Speaking to Football Daily after the match, Rangnick expressed his surprise at how well his side played.
"I'm more than happy," Rangnick said. "First of all, most important, we won the game. Second, we had a clean sheet. Third, we no doubt deserved to win.
"We had control of the game. I don't know about possession of the ball, but I suppose it was more than 60 percent. We didn't give them that many chances to score.
"We had control of the game and to be honest I was positively surprised by the performance of the players."
🗣"I didn't expect us to play on that level after only one and a half training days together with them. First half hour was amazing, the whole game took place in their half."
Ralf Rangnick seems very impressed with his United side and is positively surprised pic.twitter.com/7eQRVSOLW4— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 5, 2021
After such a short time to get his message across, Rangnick was happy to see how many of his players had taken his message on board.
"We had not even a full training session yesterday," Rangnick said. "So, most of the things happened in talking to the players, video footage, explaining to individual players and groups of players how I want to play.
"I didn't expect us to play on that level after only one and a half training days together. The first half hour was amazing. it was high intensity, high speed, high tempo.
"The only thing that was missing was scoring one or two goals, but the way we played against the ball, the whole game took place in their half."
🗣"I'm a big fan of having each player on his best possible position. Cristiano was not alone up front, together with Marcus they could work together."
Ralf Rangnick says for the first time he's delighted with his players pic.twitter.com/fWWd2fg1cN— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 5, 2021
While he kept the same starting XI that Carrick had in his last match in charge, Rangnick was pleased with his side's formation and how they played together.
"The formation has to fit to the players," Rangnick said. "I am a big fan of having each player in his best possible position.Today, that was the case.
"Cristiano [Ronaldo] was not alone up front, together with Marcus [Rashford]. They could work together, staying close together against the ball and trigger the pressure situations.
"Bruno [Fernandes] and Jadon [Sancho], I mean this is the most demanding, the most sophisticated position in the 4-2-2-2. They did well.
"Of course, they could have produced more chances, but what they did against the ball was good. The two sixes were omnipresent."
🗣"I had to ask my assistant coach who scored! He said Fred and I said Fred with his right foot!?" 🤣
Ralf Rangnick was not expecting Fred to score with his right foot pic.twitter.com/6PVddcxbU9— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 5, 2021
While Manchester Untied have some of the best attacking weapons in the league, their match-winner came from an unlikely source in Fred.
It was so unlikely, that even Rangnick had to double check that he had the right scorer.
"Not with his right foot!" Rangnick said. "I had to ask my assistant coach who scored! He said Fred. Fred? With his right foot?
"He is a wonderful boy. This is something I can say after only two days. I've heard a lot about him from Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer].
"Right now I can only say it is great to have a boy like him in the team, but the same with all of the other players."
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