Rangnick: We have to learn our lesson

The Reds created numerous chances in a completely dominant first-half display but conceded early in the second period and never managed to regain the same control of the match.

As well as Paul Pogba’s smart 18th-minute finish, United had the ball in the back of the net on two occasions, only to see both goals disallowed, for offside and a foul.

Rangnick was delighted with his side’s performance in the opening 45 minutes, but insisted it counts for nothing without the eventual victory.

“[There were] not that many things that we could have done better in the first half,” the boss told MUTV post-match.

“We scored three goals, two of them disallowed. Especially the second one, nobody can really understand it was disallowed, and why the linesman flagged a foul from Paul Pogba eight seconds after the foul, if there was a foul committed. Anyway, we should have been at least 2-0 up at half-time.

“But we said the same after the Middlesbrough game. We were doing extremely well on the ball and controlled the game but in the end it’s about winning the game.

“Today with only one point after those 94 minutes, nobody can be happy. And above all, if you want to be fourth in the league, we should not lose points like the ones tonight.”

Rangnick went into some detail on where he felt things went wrong in the second half, explaining that United gifted away possession too much and suffered on the transition against Burnley.

“The second half we didn’t start well, we were not aggressive enough, we were not composed enough on the ball,” he explained.

“Even the two minutes before we conceded the goal, three times we had won the ball and played tiki-taka football in our own half and gave away the ball too easily.

“Then we had our own counterattack, 20 seconds before we scored. The behaviour of our team in those 10 seconds before they scored was just not good enough. We had two or three players in our own half but still allowed them to score the goal.”

Attentions will quickly turn away from this game, as it always does in a jam-packed schedule. United host two south-coast teams in quick succession as Southampton and Brighton come to Old Trafford on Saturday 12 February and Tuesday 15 February respectively.

With West Ham having leapfrogged us into fourth spot in the Premier League, victories in those games are crucial, Rangnick says.

“Even if we had won [against Burnley], it would have been important but now it’s even more important to get six points out of those two games,” Ralf explained.

“But in order to do that we have to learn the lessons and just be aware that we have play on that kind of level, not only for 45 or today maybe total 70 minutes, we have to play like that for 90-94 minutes.”