Rangnick: Man Utd 'compromised' due to Ronaldo's lack of pressing

Ralf Rangnick

says that

is "not a pressing monster," and he admitted that he didn't play the way he wanted to during his six months as

's interim manager, which were not very good.

Rangnick will be in charge of his last United game at

Crystal Palace

on Sunday before becoming a consultant for the team. There are rumors that Ronaldo will not play at Selhurst Park because of a hip flexor injury.

Since coming back to

Old Trafford

at the start of the season, the 37-year-old has scored 18 Premier League goals. Even though United had a terrible season under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Harry Redknapp, that was his second-best season in the competition after 2007-08. (when he scored 31 times as the Red Devils won the title.)

Several commentators, though, have said that the Portuguese striker's lack of off-the-ball work doesn't work well with Rangnick's preferred style of high-intensity pressing. This season, United is only 12th in the Premier League in terms of possessions won in the final third. They have 162, which is a long way behind Liverpool (278) and Manchester City (231), which are the two teams that press the most.

With 851 possessions won in the middle third of the field, the Red Devils are also ranked 12th. Rangnick is struggling to bring a fast-paced style to Old Trafford. Rangnick praised Ronaldo for his ability to score goals, but he also said that pressing has never been Ronaldo's strong suit, implying that he may have changed his coaching style too much during his time in charge.

"Cristiano Ronaldo did a great job in those games, and I'm not mad at him at all. But he isn't a scary monster "Before the trip to Palace, Rangnick told a press conference. Even when he was young, he was crying and yelling, "Hooray, the other team has the ball! Where can we get balls?" He's not a player. The same goes for quite a few other players, so at one point we had to make some concessions. We may have made too many, but that's also possible."

Rangnick has also criticized United in the past for not making any transfers in January. This month, he said that the club's board did not let him sign another striker in January, even though that was what he wanted to do. At the beginning of this month, the former manager of RB Leipzig said: "I talked to the board and asked, "Shouldn't we at least talk and try to figure out if we could get a player on loan or for good?" But the answer was no in the end."

But as Rangnick gets ready to step aside for Erik ten Hag as

's manager, he told United's fans that new players will be coming in the next transfer window. "We talked about the last transfer window, which was in January, when the board and we decided not to sign any players," Rangnick said. "But now things are different."

"There will be some new players in this summer window, and Erik will have some say in what kind of player he wants. That will happen in this window and, hopefully, the next two windows. I think it's clear to everyone, the owners, the board, and every fan, that we need to get better players and make the team better overall."

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