Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick wryly admitted Manchester United are not deserving of a spot in the Champions League should their performance levels for the rest of the season persist similar to what they displayed so ludicrously at Everton.<\/p>\n
Among the six changes to United\u2019s line-up at Goodison Park were Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford and the latter made at least some form of an attempt as he threatened twice early on but was denied on both occasions by in-form England team-mate Jordan Pickford.<\/p>\n
The pendulum was swinging dramatically in favor of Everton\u2019s favor when Anthony Gordon opened the accounts with a deflected 27th-minute strike, which proved ultimately decisive as the prayed-to-heaven-and-fought-like-hell struggling Toffees breathed a huge sigh of relief in securing a heaven-sent 1-0 victory to at least grant them a momentary stay of execution from relegation. Touch\u00e8 for Lampard and his men.<\/p>\n
With that ruefully dismal performance, United\u2019s grand ambition of finishing in the Premier League top-four has taken another major step backwards and Rangnick has been left bemoaning a limpid display against an Everton side that had prior to that lost 3-2 to relegation rivals Burnley in midweek.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we score the first goal, we had enough confidence and we won most of those games,\u201d Rangnick said. \u201cBut when you concede the first goal, we lost a little bit of our composure and maybe confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all respect to Everton because they have a good team, but if you don\u2019t score against a team who conceded three goals against Burnley in the end you cannot expect to get anything out of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players themselves should be eager to play international football, if possible Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if we play like we did here we just don\u2019t deserve it. In order to qualify for Europe you have to be able to score in 95 minutes in a game like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rashford, having scored only five times in 28 appearances in all competitions this season, was creditably lively earlier on, while his Portugues team-mate Ronaldo was largely kept in containment and was rendered largely ineffective for the major part of the rumble although he did have a speck of an opportunity to equalise in added time , but the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s half-volley was kept out by none other than the magnificent Pickford himself.<\/p>\n
Rangnick wasn’t exactly exuberant when rueing the forward line\u2019s profligate errors early on, acknowledging that Pickford\u2019s opener unquestionably changed the textural complexion of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first 25 minutes we were in full control of the game,\u201d Rangnick added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even in those 25 minutes take enough and make enough advantage out of that dominating period in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could literally feel that they were crumbling after that result against Burnley, they were quite logically not full of confidence but we didn\u2019t take advantage of that and with their first shot on goal, it changed the game and changed the atmosphere in the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the second half they just defended with all their outfield players on the pitch and we were not able to break that wall down in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their earlier demoralizing loss to the Clarets meant Everton sat just one point above the relegation zone but they have now gotten themselves a whopper of a buffer which effectively eases, at least temporarily, the pressure on manager Frank Lampard.<\/p>\n
Although just a third win in 10 league matches for Lampard, the former Chelsea boss insisted his eyes are not focused on the table, with Burnley taking on rock-bottom Norwich on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"