Rangnick gives verdict on Varane's sloppy performance for Man Utd vs Newcastle

Ralf Rangnick has defended Raphael Varane for his performance on his Manchester United comeback.

The Frenchman made his first start in almost two months during Monday's 1-1 Premier League draw away at Newcastle United.

Newcastle's Allan Saint-Maximin caught out Varane for the opening goal. Luckily for Varane, Edinson Cavani rescued a point in a performance that was below-par for the Red Devils.

Since his big money £42million transfer from Real Madrid back in August, Varane has only featured ten time games due to thigh and hamstring injuries.

And interim boss Rangnick cut him some slack on his comeback.

Rangnick said: "Raphael has not played for the last five or six weeks.

Will Man United get into the top four this season? Let us know in the comments

"Even before the Tottenham game he was injured, so in the last three months he hasn't played that many games.

"Yes, he made a mistake before the first goal we conceded but apart from that I think he was okay.

"I wouldn't say he was outstanding, the same with Harry, but he did okay.

"Our problem was that we allowed too many transitional moments. This is not only a problem of the centre-backs, it is a problem of the whole team. It starts up front, the role of the number 10s in that kind of formation.

"I don't think it makes sense today to speak about the individual performance of players. We need to get better as a team."

United's final game of 2021 is on Thursday, when Burnley visit Old Trafford.

Varane is expected to keep his place in the side for the game against Sean Dyche's men.

Rangnick will be without the suspended Bruno Fernandes for the clash against the Clarets.

In the build-up to that game, the German has spoken of his frustrations at a Covid outbreak having disrupted the settled rhythm of training and matches.

He added: "I mean, [for] every coach, every ambitious coach, there's no difference between other coaches and myself in that, [everyone] wants to take faster steps and larger steps forward.

"But in order to do that, you need to be able to train.

"And as you know, we had to close Carrington for four days. Before that, we had eight or nine field players in training directly after the Norwich game and they only came back in small bits and pieces.

"So in the last three days, we were almost back to full strength with regard to the size of the squad, but we couldn't do that much in training.

"On the other hand, in those two or three training sessions, the team look good… It was, in Monday's game, a negative surprise the way that we played with regard to game speed, tempo and physicality."