Manchester United – Wolves: Rangnick’s Red Devils Resign To Their First Defeat (0-1)

Ralf Rangnick faced his toughest challenge yet as manager of Manchester United when he had to make do with a depleted squad against Bruno Lage’s impressive Wolves, who were just six points behind their hosts heading into the match. The German’s 4-2-2-2 system was set to be sternly tested by a disciplined side, which United needed to pass to keep pace with their rivals in the race for the top four.
Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.

Following Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s departure as manager at Manchester United with the club languishing just four points ahead of seventeenth spot in the Premier League table, Rangnick took interim charge until the end of the season. The ex-Schalke manager watched his team pick up ten points from a possible twelve in his first four league matches, with the caveat being that all of those were against teams in the bottom half of the table including each of the bottom three. The real challenges were coming now.

Wolves, meanwhile, were impressing many by sitting in the top half of the table in spite of comfortably underperforming their expected goals The amount of goals a team is expected to score based on the quality of the shots they take. tally, which meant that they had the potential to perhaps do even better. They had not played for over two weeks due to COVID-induced postponements, managing just one win in their five matches prior to that, although that run did include fixtures against each of the current top three.

Injuries meant that Manchester United had few options in defense, so the base of their 4-2-2-2 formation was formed . . .