Ralf explains Greenwood substitution

The young forward had provided some of the few bright moments in attack as the Reds were locked at 0-0 with the visitors, who would go on to win the game with Joao Moutinho's late strike.

Although displaying some neat touches and showing confidence in possession, he was the man to make way when Bruno Fernandes was introduced and Ralf has outlined why that was the case.

It came down to whether Greenwood or Edinson Cavani, who claimed the equaliser at Newcastle United recently, would make way for the creative talents of Bruno.

“The question was shall I take off Mason or shall I take off Edi," said Rangnick. "We decided to keep Edi as the most offensive, the more 'striker' of the two of them and take off Mason.

"It was my call," he asserted. "We could have done it in another way but we chose Mason. We know how the fans like Mason but, until then his effort, and performance was not outstanding but at least he was one of the better players."

In a separate interview with Sky Sports, the boss added: "It was 0-0 and we had our better moments in that part of the game, so we decided to bring on Bruno. He had a big chance to put us 1-0 ahead.

"Mason was good but I had to take somebody off and I didn't want to take one of the no.6s off [Scott McTominay or Nemanja Matic] so the question was should I take off Edi or Mason, and I decided to take off Mason."

Marcus Rashford and Anthony Elanga were also brought off the bench later on, with Jadon Sancho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka being replaced.