"We should have won that game easily" - Ralf Rangnick reacts to Manchester United's 'frustrating' 1-1 draw against Burnley, admits one point is 'just not enough'

After struggling to reach 4th in the Premier League, Ralf Rangnick's Manchester United have now dropped out of the league's coveted top-four places following their 1-1 away draw against Burnley last night.

Despite Cristiano Ronaldo starting on the bench, Manchester United were expected to complete a routine win against bottom-placed Burnley, but ended up being held to a 1-1 draw in what many would consider to be an unlucky result.

Raphael Varane scored a superb header early in the first half to register his first ever goal for the club, only for it to be ruled offside by VAR. The officials then overruled a Burnley own goal for a foul committed by Paul Pogba in the build-up to the goal.

After an extremely positive start, Manchester United did take the lead when Pogba found the back of the net in the 18th minute. Notably, it was his first league goal since January 2021.

However, Burnley found the equalizer immediately into the second half when Jay Rodriguez scored and neither team could break the deadlock thereafter.

Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick was visibly frustrated and lamented the two overturned goals in a post-match interview.

Speaking to BT Sport (via Sky Sports), he said:

"We scored three goals. That was different from last Friday when we only scored one goal in the first half. Tonight we scored three goals.

"In particular, the second one that was disallowed, I watched it right now in the locker room. The linesman flagged for a foul but he flagged 10 seconds after that incident. This was a very soft decision, I must say."

Rangnick further spoke about the result and his team's performance, admitting that one point is 'just not enough. Rangnick said:

"At the end, it is a frustrating evening for us because we should have won that game easily after the first half and even the last 25 minutes we had full control and dominated the game but were not decisive enough as we were in the first half.

"I could not blame the team for not having a killer instinct in the first half but in the last 25 minutes we had a lot of set pieces.

"In the end, it was a little bit a case of luck with Raphael Varane, the header by Cristiano, Harry Maguire, but in the end one point for a performance like this is just not enough."

"But again we played an excellent first half, I thought. We totally dominated the game, scored three goals but two were disallowed.

"Then in the second half, for the first 10 to 15 minutes, we were just not aggressive enough. It was clear they would come out after the break in a more aggressive way to play but we were not aggressive in those 15 minutes. We gave away the goal.

"We had a very good counter-attacking situation 30 seconds before we conceded the goal and the way that we allowed them to score, we did not defend the whole situation well."

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Ralf Rangnick and Manchester United face massive challenge for Premier League top-four finish

Burnley v Manchester United - Premier League

Ralf Rangnick and Manchester United will certainly rue the two dropped points against Burnley as it could go on to cost them dearly. The draw against Burnley, coupled with West Ham's win against Watford, saw the Red Devils drop into 5th place in the Premier League.

As the race intensifies, Rangnick's Red Devils face a very real possibility of not finishing in the coveted top-four places, with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur breathing down their neck.

Manchester United will need a considerably good string of results henceforth if they wish to finish within the four UEFA Champions League qualifying spots this season.