December 08, (THEWILL) – Manchester United’s Nemanja Matic has disclosed that the team is studying Ralf Rangnick’s tactical concepts “at every single minute.”
Following the exit of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last month, Rangnick was appointed temporary manager at Old Trafford, with the German due to return to a consultant role for two more years at the end of the season.
His first game in charge went smoothly, with United winning 1-0 at Old Trafford against Crystal Palace. Rangnick revealed after the game that he was pleasantly surprised by how effectively his team played against the Eagles, praising their pressuring in particular.
Rangnick’s side will face Young Boys in the Champions League on Wednesday night, and Matic, who will wear the captain’s armband, is anxious to highlight how hard he and his teammates are working to carry out their manager’s gameplan.
“Every manager has his ideas, we are trying to adapt, of course, to give our best to help him adapt as soon as possible on us and, of course, we have to adapt to him. We are helping each other, at the moment, everything looks good, let’s see on the pitch in the future,” he said.
Matic admitted that United’s busy playing schedule has severely limited the amount of time they could spend in training despite the squad’s willingness to train some more.
“Yeah, we don’t have too much time to train. As you said, we play every three days but we are used to that,” he added.
“The manager knows – he knew what he could expect – so we have to learn his ideas step-by-step in every single day so we are using every single moment in the training session to understand his ideas.”
United has already qualified for the knockout stages, so this is essentially a dead rubber for them. Matic, on the other hand, claimed that they were still very determined to finish on a high note.
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s good to take that pressure off, and, of course, we want to win the last game, especially at Old Trafford in front of our supporters,” he said.
“We want to finish these group stages with the three points to make our supporters happy. I think everyone is happy, everyone is ready [and] we want to finish this in the best possible way.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
