It was the perfect start to life at Old Trafford for Ralf Rangnick as Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 1-0 on Sunday.
United supporters were pondering what to expect from the match, and it’s safe to say that there’s been a lot of improvement in the space of three days.
I know Arsenal and Crystal Palace aren’t the same team. Still, I think this victory will only go down well positively with United supporters because there have been too many occasions where the team have dropped points against lower opposition. They may have had control over those matches, but eventually, the game was either drawn or lost. This marks a fundamental change.
Rangnick has only had one training session with the entire team, and it already felt like there was a massive difference in the way United have been performing in recent weeks.
The main change was obviously in the pressing of United, which is so vital to Rangnick’s philosophy. His team won possession in the final third on 12 occasions, which is the most they’ve done in the Premier League since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.
From the naked eye, it was pretty apparent that there was more intensity from the team, and this was apparent in the first half when everyone was energised and covering every single blade of grass. There was a noticeable drop-off in the second 45 minutes, which can only be attributed to running out of stamina. As each game comes by, this will only improve.
One other area of change, which will perhaps go a little unnoticed by United supporters, was seen in one of Rangnick’s substitutions.
On the 76th minute, Marcus Rashford came off. He was replaced by one of United’s academy products, Anthony Elanga, who put in a decent display, despite having just 14 minutes on the pitch.
Elanga’s situation has been a weird one this season. Many expected him to be the following academy product out of the youth system to perform under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but it didn’t happen. Why? Only Solskjaer will know the answer to that because, in pre-season, the Swede was brilliant.
Elanga scored two goals in four matches during the summer, and many expected him to be given the same opportunities as Mason Greenwood. However, it never happened, and it was strange, especially as Elanga was continuing to perform at under-21 level for his country.
It was important he finally got minutes and an encouraging sign for life under Rangnick because playing the youth is such an essential element for any United manager.
However, if you look at Rangnick’s past, he has a well-known history of trusting youth players.
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At RB Leipzig, he was the one who discovered Timo Werner, Dayot Upamecano and Naby Keita when they were of a young age. When you think about the resources at United compared to any other club, he could be the man to develop the next crop of young talent.
The opportunity Rangnick gave Elanga will only encourage other youth players in United’s academy. There’s been plenty of talk concerning who the German might bring through the ranks, and when you think about the talent of Shola Shoretire, Hannibal Mejbri and Amad, you can only be excited as a fan!
Although Solskjaer handed debuts to many United’s academy players, there wasn’t a consistent amount of game time for them, and fans will be hoping Rangnick can develop on that because it’s always exciting to see youth players performing well for the team.
There’s a definite positive feeling around Old Trafford now!
Will Rangnick play United’s youngsters? Follow our United On My Mind writer Omar Garrick on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below.
