Ralf Rangnick brushed off Gary Neville’s claim that Manchester United’s players were a ‘bunch of whinge bags’ following the side’s 1-1 draw with lowly Newcastle, instead arguing that a lack of ‘physicality’ was their ‘major problem’ on the night.
Edinson Cavani came off the bench to find an equaliser with 19 minutes remaining at St James’ Park after Allan Saint-Maximin had earlier given the Magpies the lead.
United were found wanting in numerous areas against a Newcastle team with just one solitary win under their belt this season and the result leaves the club down in seventh place in the Premier League table, seven points adrift of the top four.
The Red Devils have games in hand on their rivals above them, but trail fourth-placed Arsenal by seven points and will be desperate to return to winning ways at home to Burnley on Thursday evening.
Speaking at the half-time break, Sky Sports pundit Neville tore into United’s lacklustre performance in the opening 45 minutes and told Rangnick’s players to quit ‘complaining’.
‘They’ve not done one single thing right as a team and not one player can go in at half-time and say they’ve done their job or even done themselves justice,’ the former United and England right-back said.
‘They’ve not had a game in 16 days but I’m not really looking at that to be honest because there’s still a lot of basics they can do properly – which is win your battles, go in for tackles properly, show a bit of urgency and look like it matters.
‘They’re whinging at each other, they’re a bunch of whinge bags. Their arms are up in the air, they’re complaining about everything.
‘They got the last manager the sack Ralf Rangnick is not going to get the sack, but they’ll get a lot of managers the sack if they perform like that.’
Neville went on to slam Cristiano Ronaldo after the veteran forward stormed straight down the tunnel rather than applauding United’s travelling supporters at the full-time whistle.
However, Rangnick insisted the attitude and body language of his players was not their major issue when asked about Neville’s ‘whinge bag’ comments at his post-match press conference.
‘I don’t think today was a problem of body language,’ United’s interim manager told reporters.
‘It was more a question of physicality, of meeting the demands of speed, tempo, physicality and the side effect is the body language afterwards.
‘I don’t think that was the major problem today for us.
‘The major problem was the way we played in those moments when it was about physicality.’
Harry Maguire said United’s disrupted preparation had not ‘helped’ them in the North East, with the club forced to shut their Carrington training base following a Covid-19 outbreak.
But Rangnick was keen not to find excuses and instead called on his players to look for improvements in their game.
Harry mentioned that there might still be some side effects of Covid, but I don’t think we should look for excuses,’ the German added.
‘We just have to analyse and realise that in this area Newcastle was better than us, in many parts of the game. We have to raise that level, get better.
‘In three days we are playing Burnley and this will also be a physical game so we just have to get more physical and, on the other hand, in possession of the ball, don’t give as many giveaways as today.’
Rangnick was pleased with United’s reaction in the second half and felt it was a case of one point gained rather than two points lost for his team.
‘I think in the second half we showed a reaction. The way that we prepared the goal, the way that Edi converted that chance was good,’ he went on.
‘We had another two where Edi could have scored, especially the one when Alex Telles played the ball behind the backline of their defence. That could have been even the winning goal.
‘But on the other hand we must admit that today we won a point, we didn’t lose two. We won a point after being 1-0 down.’
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