RALF RANGNICK APOLOGISED to Manchester United’s supporters and branded their 4-0 thrashing at Brighton “humiliating” and “unacceptable”.
United’s players were subjected to chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” from their own fans as they were outclassed and outfought on a remarkable evening at the Amex Stadium.
A chastening defeat on the south coast ensured the 20-time English champions will finish with their lowest points tally of the Premier League era and extinguished slender hopes of Champions League qualification.
To start with, it’s important that we apologise to our supporters who came all the way from Manchester to Brighton,” said interim manager Rangnick.
“We were just not good enough from start to finish. The performance was not only poor, it was extremely poor.
“It was a humiliating defeat and even more so for a team like Manchester United.
“It’s not only that you lose 4-0, it was also the way we played and this is just unacceptable, very difficult to deal with and to cope.”
Protesting travelling fans once again took aim at United’s owners, with chants of “love United, hate Glazers” and “we want Glazers out” ringing out early in the game.
They later vocally questioned the commitment of their side following goals from Albion quartet Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard.
Sixth-placed United can now only accumulate a maximum total of 61 points this term – three fewer than they managed in 2013-14, which began under David Moyes and finished with the caretaker management of Ryan Giggs.
Rangnick, whose side arrived in Sussex following a 3-0 win over Brentford in his final match at Old Trafford, brushed off question marks about a lack of desire in his squad.
“I have to defend the players,” said the German. “I don’t think that they are (uncaring).
“I saw them in training. I saw them against Brentford.
“We had a good week of training with good atmosphere, with good focus on the training sessions.
“But I remember me watching the game against Watford away, 4-1 (under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer), who are now relegated, and this looked very similar to what happened today.
“For me, the problem is how to defend as a team. If you do not defend properly, if you give them all the space and time in the world, this is the result.”
Players should be ashamed of themselves. Absolutely embarrassed themselves and the club with their lack of interest today. If Erik Ten Hag was watching that today he must be thinking what have I done. He’s got a massive job ahead of him to try United back to where they should be.
@Roy Dowling: He was in the crowd.
@Roy Dowling: first time watching Utd in a while, players should be ashamed of themselves, what a reverse in fortunes between them and LiverPoo.
@MonkeyTarmac: here I’ll lend you the L you left out of your comment. Genuine mistake. It happens us all. No worries.
@Roy Dowling: I think for the first time ever I will actually 100% fully agree with you.
4 nil down and brings on Maguire ?
@Gavin Lynam: ironically maguire provided the most attacking threat of any utd player when he came on.
@A$AP Ragnick: yup. Can’t blame McGuire for this one. Ragnick of course will find some excuses
Michael o brian .a glorious result at Anfield tonight.
@O’Brien Michael: No need for that!
@Tyrone Smith: spurs dropped 2 points
@John Kavanagh: we lost 1-1
I don’t mind United, but you’d swear they were the first top team to ever take a whipping.
@Colm: man utd are the biggest story in football. Doesnt matter if they are good or complete dog poop.
@Colm: They’ve taken a few in fairness.
@Brian Dunne: biggest story?
@Chief: yes chief. Man utd get the most column inches and internet clicks.
@Brian Dunne: Brian. Stop it. Jesus. Real sitting there with 13 European cups and your dead serious with that comment.
@Darren Fitzpatrick: and they probably get the most column inches in spain Darren. Over hear man utd sell papers like no other
@Darren Fitzpatrick: do real generate as much column inches/clicks here and in the uk as United? It’s not a comment on trophies or how good the teams are. It’s about which team generates the most views/clicks. Look at this website for example, united dead rubbers still generate more discussion than top end pl and champions leagues games, the numbers don’t lie.
@Brian Dunne: well when you said the biggest story I’m football I’m pretty sure real play football. Come out of your own cavity. Commercially your club is very big yes. Glad that’s what your chasing
@Darren Fitzpatrick: what are you about lad? Manchester United sell papers. Thats a fact. Im not bragging about it. Its just a fact.
@Darren Fitzpatrick: Well look at the Journal. This column has more views and comments than Liverpool one even though came out roughly same time. In football terms, Liverpool result is way bigger but people want to talk about United more
@Alan Kenny: might be something to do with the fact that a large proportion of median consumers began watching football in the 90s/00s, back when utd were a dominant force. In all reality right now they’re a footballing irrelevancy.
@Shane McGettrick: lol! Man utd have been the biggest story in english football long before the 90s! Like i said even when they are basically finishing mid table they are the biggest story
@Brian Dunne: yeah your 1 European cup and 7 league championships in 112 years prior to the 90’s screams huge. LOL
@Darren Fitzpatrick: do i need crayons to draw this out for you? Man utd have always been big news. A lot of it probably stemmed from the munich air disaster. Then law, best and Charlton. Then they got relegated in the 70s. Huge news. They have consistently been the most followed team in terms of attendances. If they are on tv more people tend to watch them. If they are on the back page of the paper more people tend to buy the paper. If they are on the 42 even, more people will click. A lot of them fans of other teams. Win lose or draw man utd are the journos dream.
@Brian Dunne: your convincing yourself here Brian. You’d have made two good managerial appoints int he history of your football club. Letting go is hard, it was for liverpool fans too in the 90’s. But you’s will get back that’s the circle of footballing life. At the moment you’s are irrelevant in football. Course people are Gona love your down fall when you’d thought it would never come. I love football chat weather it’s my team or not. You get slated as a football fan on here if you talk about anything other than your own team. Talk to you on the next article Brian :)
@Darren Fitzpatrick: ask any journalist on here! Ask any journalist anywhere. Man utd are the big story. This article for example is a managers reaction peace for utd, currently 44 thousand views. Liverpool spurs match report in a huge game currently has 20 thousand views. See? As ive said, im not bragging. Its just a fact. Dont get t trophy for being the most talked about team:)
@Darren Fitzpatrick: At the time of writing, there’ve been more than three times the amount of views on this article than on the article about the potentially league defining match at Anfield. I understand that must hurt; that not as many people care about what happens to your beloved Liverpool as they do about United, but it’s true. Granted, many are likely just rubbernecking at the car crash the club have become, but whatever about the wreckage, United are still statistically the bigger news.
@Brian Dunne: Man U supporters hanging onto how many back pages they take up.. football is about the fans enjoying their team on the pitch not in the newspapers. Numb nuts
@Charmaine ☘ Irish: again, i dont care about who gets the back pages. Im pointing out that united get more. Simple. Jeez the pool fans are a sensitive bunch on here
@Charmaine ☘ Irish: oh and thanks for the name calling!
@Stiofán Ó’Murchú: I can assure you I’m not hurt. And it’s probably you. We can’t win on the pitch but we can win on the 42 article views is as rare an argument as I’ve ever heard. I do agree that Man Utd are more a commercially interested club than a footballing interested club.Huge.
@Darren Fitzpatrick: its ok to admit you misunderstood his original point. There is no talk of ‘winning’ anything, or even anything about how good either team are.There was no argument until you started one with a straw man point about real and their amount of champions league trophies, which had nothing to do with what brian said. Commercial interest isn’t the same thing as column inches/media coverage either, so why do you keep equating the two?
@A$AP Ragnick: i think we are wasting our time here pal!
@Brian Dunne: they were of interest around the Munich Air disaster and the best/Charlton/law years, but all of that is cyclical. Leeds and Liverpool were the teams I the press during their dominant eras.
You might notice that there’s more views of the match report for the Liverpool game than the utd one, it’s the “embarassing” part of this article that gets attention.
Regardless utd fans used to shout about being the best team in the world, then it was the the most valuable club in the world, now its the most interesting club in the world?! Great if you value attention above all else but embarassing stuff if you’re interested in the football.
@Shane McGettrick: nobody’s ‘shouting’ about anything, or claiming they value the attention. It’s literally a fact, not something being bragged about. That part is being added in by the pool fans in this thread adding legs to it to ridicule united fans about something that doesn’t exist. Good point about football success being cyclical, a lot here don’t seem to realise.
@Shane McGettrick: can you people not understand English or something? Absolutely nobody is bragging about anything. Simply stating the fact that any journalist in English or Ireland will tell you Manchester United sells more than any other British club.
@Brian Dunne: pull the other one Brian, your contribution to this thread is the very definition of bragging about it. Exactly the same as the “hated, adored, never ignored” nonsense. The fact that media coverage is all you have left to point to is an indictment in itself.
@Shane McGettrick: you are literally making stuff up. United are absolute muck. The worst i have literally seen. Nobody is bragging about anything.Im not talking most successful, best team etc.
A glorious result
@O’Brien Michael: super spurs
@O’Brien Michael: Lol the one last nite certainly was a glorious result!
Michael o brian. Easy to give but hard to take.
It’s really turning into a graveyard for manager stocks.
Why UTD fans always blaming the glazers? They’ve financed all the signings? It’s the players abs managers fault they are so $hite
@Genera L Consensus: It’s all happening on their watch though. They are approving the managerial appointments, the transfers, CEO appointments, the club dynamics. The players are definitely to blame aswell , but the majority of them should be well gone by now.
Their not fit to wear my shirt and that’s 5 years old
@Noel Donohue: is it size ‘slim medium’?
It’s as good as they are
West Ham chasing the Europa League spot off them which Liverpool gave 6th place.
10 of the top 30 highest paid players in the league are United players. One of the biggest wage bills in world football. I know success goes in cycles, but what an incredible waste of money this last decade has been. Those successful years with Ferguson built such a great platform to build on. They’ve stayed stuck in those years, sanctioned some truly terrible business and football decisions. What a waste of time the last 3/4 years have been particularly aswell. They desperately need new ownership and a new vision.
Ronaldo doesn’t deserve to be associated with this team..He should be playing with a top class team.
I think they need to reward players for excellence on the field akin to how the GAA does it.