It was clear after Thursday night that Jesse Lingard and Ralf Rangnick were not on the same page.
Rangnick told his press conference Lingard had asked to take a couple of days off, and would not be featuring in the FA Cup game against Middlesbrough.
Lingard seemed to dispute this with a tweet which read ‘the club advised me to take time off due to personal reasons.’
Rangnick still was not happy, speaking about Lingard after Manchester United’s defeat to Middlesbrough on Friday night.
The interim boss was quoted after the game by The Express: “We were one outfield player less on the team sheet, so why would I have allowed him [Lingard] to have four or five days off?
“I would have loved to have had him in the squad.”
Unhappy situation
It looks like Lingard has some explaining to do, except, we just don’t want to hear it.
United fans are fed up in general right now, and the defeat has further soured the mood. United are out of the FA Cup and that loss cannot be undone.
Crossed wires or whatever, if Lingard really wanted to be involved, he would have been at Old Trafford last night.
United could have done with an extra attacking option, a more youthful one than the ineffective and ageing Juan Mata.
Rangnick tells it straight and it is clear he was not amused with Lingard’s version of events.
The club’s number 14 has some making up to do to win over the supporters, because most fans see Lingard right now as a player who simply does not want to be at the club, an unwanted distraction off the pitch, and one that has contributed little on it for this club for the majority of the last three years.
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