After the victory against Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa in the FA Cup last Monday, joy returned to Old Trafford. The stands watched as Manchester United defeated one of their old rivals at home and advanced to the Cup round by beating Aston Villa narrowly thanks to a McTominay goal.
inside the locker room, Ralf Rangnick decided to give this past Tuesday off to his team after the effort, but he forgot a few hours later. According to Daily Mail, the coach went to Carrington to lead Tuesday’s session and was surprised not to see the module where the players pass their Covid-19 control tests before training. This newspaper assures that Rangnick called the club and they reminded him that he had declared a day off that Tuesday. “Blushing”, according to the Mail, he returned home. When the players found out, they claim, It has become the joke of the week in a locker room with an atmosphere that is perceived as more tense than usual.
And these tensions also remain palpable. The coach sent the schedules for this month and the players were dissatisfied with the scheduling of training from two in the afternoon. In addition, the squad will remain in Manchester during this break since the pandemic situation has led Rangnick to cancel a stage in Dubai scheduled for these dates and planned at the time by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
In his intention to continue with the reforms since his arrival, Rangnick also internally questioned Paul Pogba’s decision to recover from his injury in Dubai and not do so at the club’s facilities.
This afternoon, starting at 6:30 p.m., Manchester United will face Gerrard’s Aston Villa again. This time, the red devils will travel to Birmingham in search of repeating the cup victory and getting three points that will rise in the standings and reduce the difference with the Champions zone, which Tottenham marks with 37 points. At Villa, the focus is on the possible debut of their latest signing, Philippe Coutinho.