Double pack after “eternal” doldrums
Ronaldo can finally fulfill his mission
2/16/2022, 8:47 am
Ralf Rangnick can finally celebrate again and his superstar helped: Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice after a long wait in the first win after three sometimes frustrating winless games. But it remains complicated.
Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has saved the English football record champions Manchester United with coach Ralf Rangnick from another setback and scored his first goal since December. The Portuguese scored the lead in the 2-0 (0-0) win against Brighton Hove & Albion. Bruno Fernandes made everything clear in added time (90+7). This put Man United in fourth place in the battle for a place in the Champions League. Brighton, long an uncomfortable opponent, had to cope with the red card for Lewis Dunk shortly after the goal for an emergency brake (54th). The Rangnick team had not won the league twice recently and allowed themselves an embarrassing FA Cup defeat against second division club Middlesbrough.
The atmosphere is said to be tense between Rangnick and his superstar. “He should score more goals, that’s clear,” the coach had recently said to his attacker. At the same time, the coach emphasized that the Portuguese was not solely responsible for this. “It’s not just Ronaldo’s problem, it’s also a problem for the other players. If you look at how many chances we’re creating, that has to change in the next few weeks.” Before the game in Brighton, Ronaldo had not scored in 537 minutes – one of the longest goal droughts of his career. Now the five-time world footballer has duly fulfilled his mission.
“We want to finish fourth in the league, that’s the highest goal we can achieve,” Rangnick said at a press conference on Monday. “We definitely want to reach the Champions League, but it won’t be easy.” Rangnick has been in charge of the English record champions for eleven weeks since his surprising appointment as interim coach. At least the results were good at the beginning of his term of office, which lasted until the end of the season, but he could not yet miss a lastingly successful game idea for the noble ensemble, which had been strengthened with Ronaldo and former Dortmund player Jadon Sancho before the season. In the meantime, however, he knows “what is important in the next season, but now is not the right time to discuss it with everyone.”
Earlier in the week, Rangnick had said former United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would share some of the blame if the club miss out on a place in the top four this season. Rangnick took over the team in eighth place in November after an embarrassing 4-1 loss at relegation candidate Watford. Now you are at least for the moment on a Champions League place. However, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton have three and two games fewer than Manchester United respectively and could pass again.