Ralf Rangnick says he has not hit his targets and Covid has impacted progress at Manchester United
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Updated 29/12/2021 at 18:26 GMT
Interim Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick remains unbeaten during his short time at the club and has rekindled hope at the club that it will return to an attacking, high-intensity philosophy not seen at Old Trafford for many years. But that style was nowhere to be seen against Newcastle on Monday and Rangnick says an outbreak of Covid at the club has halted his progress with the team
'Of course not' - Rangnick admits lack of sufficient progress at Man Utd
Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick says Covid has disrupted progress at the club and has stopped him reaching his targets.
Rangnick narrowly won his first two Premier League matches at the club but his side looked bereft of ideas and energy against a lively Newcastle team during a 1-1 draw at St James' Park on Monday.
It was Manchester United's first game in 14 days in a usually packed Christmas period due to an outbreak of Covid at the club that forced the closure of their Carrington training base.
And while the 63-year-old has kept up his unbeaten start, he admitted that Covid has put the brakes on progress and made his work more difficult.
"Of course not," Rangnick said when asked if he had achieved his targets at the club.
"Every coach, every ambitious coach - and there's no difference between other coaches and myself in that area - wants to take faster steps and larger steps forward.
"But in order to do that, you need to be able to train."
Indeed, Rangnick confessed that he "did not like the performance at all" as his side escaped St James' Park with a draw thanks to Edinson Cavani's second-half equaliser.
The squad was back to full strength for the match against Newcastle, but Rangnick says it is a lack of training over the past fortnight that has caused the most issues.
"The last three days, we were almost back to full strength with regard to the size of the squad, but we couldn't do that much in training," he added ahead of Thursday's home match against Burnley.
"On the other hand, in those two-three training sessions, the team looked good and therefore in Monday's game it was really a bit of a negative surprise, the way that we played with regard to game speed, game tempo and physicality."
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