Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick has, on Monday night, provided an explanation for his decision to haul Mason Greenwood off prematurely against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Moutinho’s strike the difference

Greenwood and co. were of course back in action earlier this evening.

In the club’s latest Premier League outing, the Red Devils welcomed the aforementioned Wolves to Old Trafford, eyeing a 2nd win on the bounce.

When all was said and done, however, United were brought firmly back down to earth, by a visiting outfit fully deserving of their eventual three-point haul.

After dominating throughout, Wolves finally found an all-important winner inside the closing ten minutes of action, when Phil Jones’ clearance was pounced upon by Joao Moutinho, to pick out the far corner of David de Gea’s net from the edge of the area:

‘Mason or Edi’

In turn, on the back of not only a disappointing result but, above all, performance on the part of their side this evening, the ensuing post-match backlash on the part of the Manchester United faithful proved largely predictable.

Boss Ralf Rangnick was one individual to come in for heavy criticism, owing to a frankly questionable tactical setup on both sides of the ball.

One decision in particular on the part of the German even saw boos ring around Old Trafford, as Mason Greenwood, who had looked the hosts’ sole creative spark to that point, was hooked inside the hour mark.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Rangnick was therefore inevitably drawn on his call to haul off United’s gifted young wide-man prematurely.

And the former RB Leipzig chief went on to provide a full explanation, admitting that, though Greenwood was ‘one of the better players’ (albeit ‘not outstanding’) on the day, the 20-year-old was ultimately substituted to ensure that the more advanced Edinson Cavani could remain on the pitch:

‘The question was shall I take off Mason or shall I take off Edi, that was the question. We decided to keep Edi as the more offensive, the more striker of the two on the pitch. I take off Mason, that was my call.’

‘We could also have done it in a different way but it shows how highly how the fans like Mason as a homegrown player and, as I said, his effort and performance was not outstanding but at least he was one of the better players today.’

 

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