RALF RANGNICK will stick by his struggling centre backs Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane despite their horror show against Newcastle.
But the Manchester United interim coach has called on his star-studded squad to stand up and be counted – admitting they have not made as much progress as he would have liked.
The Red Devils put on a woeful display at St James’ Park as they scraped a 1-1 draw after Edinson Cavani cancelled out Allan Saint-Maximin’s stunning opener.
Varane made his comeback from a hamstring injury picked up on October 30 – but alongside Maguire was tormented by a struggling Toon attacking outfit.
The French World Cup winner was at fault in the build-up for Saint-Maximin’s goal, while Maguire looked a bag of nerves.
But with fellow defender Victor Lindelof a doubt after testing positive for Covid, German boss Rangnick is ready to give the pair another chance against Burnley tonight.
Rangnick said: “In three months Raphael has not played that much. Yes he made a mistake before the first goal but apart from that I think he was okay.
“He was not outstanding, and the same goes to Harry. They did okay.
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“Our problem was that we allowed too many transitional moments – this is not the problem of just the centre backs but the whole team. It starts up front.
“You can speak of the role of the No10s in that kind of formation, so I don’t think it makes sense to speak about the individual performances of players. We need to get better as a team.”
Rangnick took over on November 29 following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking and has since overseen three games – including two unconvincing 1-0 wins over Crystal Palace and Norwich before a Covid outbreak at the Carrington training ground.
United are currently seven points off the top four with two games in hand.
Asked if the team has made the desired progress, Rangnick added: “Of course not. Every ambitious coach wants to take faster and larger steps forward.
“But in order to do that you need to be able to train. We had to close Carrington for four days and had eight or nine outfield payers in training. We couldn’t do much.
“In the last three days we were back to full strength and the team looked good.
“Therefore it was really a bit of a negative surprise against Newcastle the way we played in terms of game speed, tempo and physicality.”
Cavani was the bright spark at St James’ Park with his second half finish – and Rangnick may rely on the Uruguayan to deliver the goods once more against Burnley.
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Rangnick explained: “In the two days before the Newcastle game I was considering playing Edinson from the start.
“I spoke with him and he didn’t feel comfortable playing from the beginning because he didn’t know how fit he was.
“After we were 1-0 down at half time against Newcastle it was clear we needed to take more risks and needed to change something – that is why he came on at half time.”
