The Man United star did not score against the Eagles but managed to impress the German manager with his performance.
Manchester United defeated Crystal Palace in Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge. Fred scored the only goal of the night with a stunning strike, while the Eagles goalkeeper denied Cristiano Ronaldo several times.
However, goal-scoring attempts were not the only impressive aspect of Ronaldo’s performance on Sunday afternoon. The Man United superstar won several duels in midfield, actively taking part in ball recoveries.
In a post-match interview, Rangnick highlighted Ronaldo’s performance while praising him for his pressing.
“I am very happy with the way the team performed, especially the first half-hour, with the pressing, it was exceptional. The only thing missing was the 1-0 or 2-0,” he told BBC Match of the Day.
“The way we defended, we had control of the whole game, the clean sheet was the most important part.
“These are the things we must improve. We need to keep clean sheets. With just the one training session, I was really impressed. We did much better than expected.
“We were never not apart from maybe the last five minutes. At all other times we were trying to keep them away from our goal.
“We wanted to play with two strikers, especially in the central position. By the way, Cristiano Ronaldo’s work off the ball, chapeau.”
Rangnick usually organizes his teams for high-intensity pressing, which requires the players to chase the ball immediately when the opponents gain possession.
“It depends on the game,” he told Premier League Productions.
“Sometimes you have to press a little bit more, sometimes you have to press less and everyone knows that it’s one of the things that the manager wants from us. More pressure, to be more aggressive. We tried to do it [today].
“I think the first 25 minutes from us was unbelievable, great tempo and we don’t give any space to them. We recovered a lot of balls high up the pitch. We could have scored many times in the first half I think, at least three times we could do a little more.
“But we got the three points and that’s the most important thing.”
Ronaldo’s pressing throughout the current season is not impressive. However, the Man United star seems to have taken the first step to adapt to the new coach’s style.
Man United will play their second game under Rangnick against Young Boys on Wednesday. After the Champions League game, the Red Devils will return to Premier League action against Norwich three days later.
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