While Ralf Rangnick admitted he “did not like the performance at all” after watching his team draw 1-1 with Newcastle United, but he defended the questionable body language of his players after they were branded “a bunch of whinge-bags” by former club captain Gary Neville.
Edinson Cavani struck for goal after he came off the bench to score an equaliser in the second-half. United then failed to push on to clinch a winner and missed out on an opportunity to leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham in the Premier League.
However, at half-time with the scoreline 1-0 in Newcastle’s favour, Neville launched an emotional rant on Sky Sports and criticised the body language of Rangnick’s players.
Neville said: “They’re a bunch of whinge-bags. Watch them on that pitch. I’ll not go into names, but they’re whinging at each other, arms up in the air complaining about everything. Honestly, they were absolutely shocking in that first half.
“They got the last manager the sack. Ralf Rangnick is not going to get the sack, he’s only had two or three weeks with them, but they’ll get a lot of managers the sack if they carry on like that, because that’s a really, really poor performance.”
🗣 "They are a bunch of whingebags. They are absolutely shocking out there."@GNev2 has nothing positive to say about Manchester United's first half performance pic.twitter.com/KsCDORbUF9
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 27, 2021
Footage courtesy of Sky Sports
Rangnick was asked about the comments at full-time and said: “I don’t think today it was a problem of body language, it was more a question of physicality, of meeting the demands with regard to speed, tempo, physicality. The side-effect is the body language afterwards.
“But I don’t think that was the major problem today for us, the major problem was the way that we played in those moments when it was about physicality.”
🗣 "I don't think this was our biggest problem today."
Ralf Rangnick disagrees that the Manchester United players body language was the problem today pic.twitter.com/pzUhO5Y1ku
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 27, 2021
There was more debate in the Monday Night Football studio after Rangnick addressed the ‘whinge-bag’ comments, as Neville continues to disagree with the German coach over his players body language.
🗣 "You can't kid us, you can't kid football fans, there's no way they will be conned, they know what they're watching with their own eyes."@GNev2 disagrees with Ralf Rangnick dismissing problems with players body language pic.twitter.com/b6aYgBcnuT
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 27, 2021
“You can’t kid us, you can’t kid football fans, there’s no way they will be conned, they know what they’re watching with their own eyes,” Neville said on Sky.
