Manchester United interim boss Ralph Rangnick has been praised for a ‘wise’ tactical turn during the club’s 3-1 win over Burnley.
The Red Devils propelled Tottenham to sixth in the Premier League after proving very well for Sean Dyche’s side at Old Trafford on Thursday night.
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Scott McTominay opened the scoring with a fine curling strike from the edge of the box in the eighth minute, with Clarets defender Ben Mee scoring his own goal just before the half-hour mark.
Cristiano Ronaldo put United for three good in the 38th minute before Aaron Lennon took back a goal for the hosts.
But it was Rangnik’s use of tactics that caught the eye of Scottish pundit Eli McCoist.
The former Rangers striker observed that his compatriot McTominay was always on hand to mark Burnley’s huge centre-forward Chris Wood whenever the visitors took the first route.
And McCoist observed that it allowed Eric Bailey and Harry Maguire to keep their shape in the backline.
Burnley kicked the ball overhead, speaking during his commentary on Amazon Prime Video Sport, saying: “It’s an interesting strategy.
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“when they [Burnley] Going long, McTominay is actually retreating to pick up Wood, which allows the two center-backs to maintain position.
“Quite intelligent actually.”
McTominay admitted after winning the Theater of Dreams that his teammates were still adapting to Rangnik’s new strategy.
He told Amazon: “It’s about adopting new approaches. We have to go back to the basics of football. We have to tackle, we have to run, we have to build.”
“If we are not racing and competing in the first 15 minutes it will be difficult, no matter what the quality of our forward players.
“We want to enjoy football, there’s a lot of negativity, and if you enjoy it you’ll play well in the end.”
Before adding: “Maybe the first half as a team was [the best display under Rangnick], In the second half we were a little flat for whatever reason.
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“We need to get it for the full 90 minutes, which we didn’t really have this year.
“But we are learning and getting used to. The game against Newcastle was difficult and we have to back out.
“The manager said we set the record for the most turnovers in the league. We had to keep the ball better.”
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