Rangnick backs Reds to respond positively

The Reds had taken a first-half lead thanks to Jadon Sancho's maiden home goal, but with Matt Crooks levelling things up midway through the second half, it was Chris Wilder's side who progressed to round five, thanks to their 8-7 victory in a marathon penalty shootout.

With United quickly returning to action in just three days' time, Rangnick believes the only aspect missing from his side's performance was the ability to find the back of the net.

''I think we have played well in the last couple of weeks, in the league and also today in the first half,'' began the 63-year-old.

''I don't think we could have done a lot of things a lot better, apart from scoring more goals in the first half.

''We have to take our chances better with more quality than we did today.''

Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty that would have opened the scoring before Sancho did and with Bruno Fernandes hitting the post late on, our interim boss felt those were the finite differences between going out and going through.

''The chance that Bruno had, if he had 10 chances like that in a game, he would score nine of them.

''Today he hit the post and I think he tried to place that ball almost too accurately into the corner of the goal.

''In the end things like that can happen. Of course he didn’t do that on purpose and for now our full focus must go on the other two competitions.''

With Premier League action now coming thick and fast during February, the Reds have little time to dwell as our clash with the Clarets is the first of five top-flight fixtures this month.

''Physically, I don't think we need to lift the squad,'' Ralf added. 

''With Paul [Pogba] having been out for two and a half months, it was normal that he was substituted after 65, 70 minutes.

''Jadon [Sancho] had no injury, he was just feeling some fatigue and had some cramp so that was the reason why we decided to take him off.

''Of course the players are disappointed like we all are but again this is football, this can happen.''