Rangnick: Humiliating defeat at Brighton ‘not acceptable’ for Man Utd

Ralf Rangnick

apologized to

supporters after the Red Devils were thrashed 4-0 by

in what he described as their worst performance under his management.

United fell behind to a first-half goal from Moises Caicedo. Still, goals from

Marc Cucurella

, Pascal Gross, and Leandro Trossard in the second half condemned the Red Devils to a humiliating defeat at the Amex Stadium.

The Red Devils have now conceded more Premier League goals this season (56) than in any other season. With 58 points after 37 games, they are on track to finish with their lowest points total in the competition (previously 64 in 2013-14).

Meanwhile, United have now conceded four or more goals in 12 Premier League games since

Alex Ferguson

's retirement in 2013, the same number of times as they did in 810 games during his tenure. Rangnick told BT Sport after United's fifth consecutive away league defeat that his players had "ignored" his game plan but that the defeat was "humiliating."

Rangnick was asked if the defeat was the worst he had faced since arriving at Old Trafford, and he replied, "It was." This was not enough from start to finish; we were second best in every critical area, and we can only apologize to our supporters.

"It was a poor showing and a humiliating defeat." We gave them too much time, too much space today, and we were never in a position to stop them from playing through our lines from the first minute. I don't believe they disobeyed the game plan, but we were unable to stop them; we gave them too much time and space, and when you do that against a technically strong team like Brighton, you get this result."

Meanwhile, in their 365th game at this level, the Seagulls' comprehensive victory was their biggest top-flight win ever. Rangnick tried to change the game at halftime by bringing on Edinson Cavani and Fred. Despite three of Brighton's four goals coming in the second half, he insisted that something had to change after United failed to register a shot on target in the first.

"As I previously stated, stopping them in the first half was extremely difficult. We took a risk in the second half by bringing on Edinson as a second striker alongside Fred and playing 4-4-2," he explained. "In retrospect, playing in a 4-4-2 against them may have been too risky, but we needed to change the energy, and today we were just second-best in all relevant areas."

"Had we continued to play as we did in the first half, it would have only been a matter of time before we conceded the second goal, so I chose the 4-4-2 formation to take a bigger risk." But it was a disaster for us after two early goals. We didn't defend at all as a team."

Rangnick now has just one match remaining in command at Old Trafford, with United facing

on the last day of the season before Erik ten Hag takes over. Rangnick, who will take on a consulting role after stepping down as United's coach, thinks his team was "on the correct track" for much of his time in command, although admitting the Red Devils had been "very terrible" recently.

"I believe we should divide it into two half." We had been putting in good performances up until the West Ham game [a 1-0 win in late January] and even the Tottenham game [a 3-2 triumph in March], but when we defeated Tottenham at home, West Ham at home, then won [4-2] at Leeds, it was a whole other level of energy.

"However, there was a lack of energy and aggressiveness in games like today's or Everton [a 1-0 loss last month]." You can't win a game without the ball if you play like that.

"I knew I wanted to come when the call came in November, and as I said, we were on the right track for the first three or four months; we were in three contests and had fantastic performances, but we were terrible in the final four, five, six weeks."

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