GOOD MORNING MAN UTD FANS
Manchester United beat Crystal Palace on Ralf Rangnick’s debut as interim manager at Old Trafford.
United put together a strong display in a new era that saw them adopting Rangnick’s high possession and high pressing tactics.
Fred broke the deadlock on 77 minutes when he fired a stunning curling shot from the edge of the box past Vicente Guaita.
The Red Devils came close to an earlier goal when Alex Telles delivered a free kick from the right but hit Guaita’s crossbar after 68 minutes.
Palace also came close to a goal two minutes before Fred’s winner when a ball came in from a corner-kick down the right and James Tomkins got the header at the far post.
The ball reached Jordan Ayew on the other side and his shot just missed David de Gea’s bottom right corner.
Rangnick is “more than happy” with United’s win over Palace for three reasons.
The ex-RB Leipzig boss said: “I’m more than happy. First of all, most importantly, we won the game. Second, we had a clean sheet, third I think we no doubt deserved to win, because we had control of the game.
“I suppose it [United’s possession] was more than 60 per cent, and we didn’t give them that many chances to score. To be honest I was positively surprised by the performance of the players. I didn’t expect us to play at that level after only one-and-a-half training days together with them.
“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”.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa star John McGinn is targeted by United following Rangnick’s arrival at the helm, according to SunSport’s Duncan Wright.
The Red Devils are looking for midfield reinforcement amid the uncertainty surrounding the futures of Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Donny van de Beek.
Leeds’ Kalvin Phillips and West Ham’s Declan Rice have been touted as potential options.
But Scotland international McGinn has also caught the eye with his influential performances for club and country.
Finally, United are keeping tabs on Barcelona star Frenkie de Jong ahead of the January transfer window.
According to El Nacional, the Manchester giants are very keen on De Jong but are not willing to offer more than £47million.
That is £18m less than what Barca paid Ajax for the midfielder’s signature in 2019.
However, the report adds the Blaugrana would not even consider accepting an offer lower than £60m for the Netherlands international.
