Rangnick slammed for subbing Greenwood instead of Ronaldo

Carlo Garganese

4 Jan 2022 09:20 GMT
3 min read

Premier League legend Ian Wright has hit out at Ralf Rangnick for his decision to substitute Mason Greenwood during Man Utd’s defeat to Wolves.

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Rangnick suffered his first loss as Man United boss on Monday night as a late goal from Joao Moutinho claimed a deserved 1-0 win for Wolves at Old Trafford.

Man Utd barely threatened throughout the 90 minutes but Ragnick still opted to keep veteran strike-duo Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani on the pitch until the end.

Instead, he hooked off youngsters Mason Greenwood and Jadon Sancho – with the former being replaced on the hour by Bruno Fernandes and the latter by Marcus Rashford on 75 minutes.

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Wright believes that Rangnick showed weakness and took the easy option in keeping on two seasoned players while substituting two younger starlets.

What did Wright say about Greenwood?

"I think that was a sacrifice because it’s easy to take him off," Wright claimed.

"You’re not going to take off Cavani or Ronaldo. He’s taken off Greenwood who is someone at the age where he is kind of fearless. We know what he is capable of doing.

"He’s always going to get on the ball and dribble at people. You don’t take that off because he is going to do something at some stage that’s going to create a chance.

© ProShots - Rangnick suffered his first defeat at Man Utd

"In this game, Greenwood was giving more. For Greenwood to be taken off, because Cavani is more experienced and the stature of the player, says to me ‘I don’t trust him enough now’.

"I’m not taking Mason Greenwood off. For him to say: ‘And I just chose Greenwood’ is just taking off the youngster who is doing more.

"When you consider [Nemanja] Matic and [Scott] McTominay played the whole 90 minutes when they needed something, I am baffled by that."

Man Utd face a fight to qualify for the top four this season as they currently languish in seventh position, four points behind Arsenal in the final Champions League spot.

However, United do have a game in hand and what on paper is a kind run of fixtures coming up.