Ralf Rangnick lamented another abject away showing from Manchester United at Crystal Palace, while he thanked Brighton and Hove Albion for helping the Red Devils to Europa League qualification.
United lost six consecutive away league matches for the first time since March 1981 after Wilfried Zaha’s strike proved decisive in the 1-0 win for Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Erik ten Hag was in attendance at Selhurst Park and has much to ponder after United finished the Premier League season with a record-low points tally (58).
It was also the first time United did not end a league campaign with a positive goal difference (zero in 2021-22) for the first time since the 1989-90 season (minus-one).
However, Brighton came from behind to defeat top-six hopefuls West Ham, which meant United will be playing Europa League football next term under Ten Hag after finishing sixth in the league.
Rangnick, who will move into a consultancy role alongside his managerial job at Austria, expressed his gratitude to Graham Potter’s side for overcoming David Moyes’ West Ham.
“Yes, I think Brighton did us the favour to turn the game around because they were losing at half-time,” he told reporters.
“They scored three times in the second half and that was the good thing about the weekend and about this fixture.
“We would have loved to take care of ourselves but in a way the game was indicative of last couple of weeks, especially when we played away from home.
“It was a new experience for me, not necessarily coming in the middle of the season, but knowing that it would be an interim role. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any pre-season and unfortunately, we couldn’t strengthen the squad.
“These things happen and in hindsight, it was a little bit bittersweet or sweet bitter rather because in the first couple of weeks and months we did well.
“We collected enough points with an average of 2.1 until the game against Atletico [Madrid] but I think that defeat in the Champions League was in a way like somebody popped the balloon.”
Rangnick also bemoaned United’s away performance as they failed to capitalise on chances and allowed Palace to impose themselves on the contest.
“I think we had three good opportunities to score ourselves in the first half but we didn’t and, especially in the first half, we had too many unforced errors and bad giveaways, that is the way we conceded the goal,” he continued.
“In fact, it was our assist, the goalscorer, in the end, was Zaha but the ones who gave the assist were ourselves.
“There was a throw-in – just keep the ball into our own half – and the way we defended that shot was also not the way that you have to defend in this league and that’s why we were trailing again 1-0.
“At half-time, we were trying to bring on all the young strikers we had on the bench. We had some opportunities in the second half but it was not clinical enough and that’s why we lost again away from home.”
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