Control. It’s been the buzzword since Ralf Rangnick was appointed by Manchester United, and in that sense this was a very encouraging start to his stint as interim manager.
‘If you want to win a football match, you have to control it, so the aim right now is to help the team control games more,’ Rangnick wrote in his first programme notes before beating Crystal Palace on Sunday. ‘Finding a way to win this first game is my only focus.’
And find it, he did, even though United weren’t in total control and it took 77 minutes for Fred to emerge as the unlikely hero against obdurate opponents.