Ralf Rangnick: Fourth-placed finish is the best Manchester United can hope for

Ralf Rangnick admits finishing fourth in the Premier League is the best Manchester United can now hope for this season as he said his players have made it “too easy” for their opponents in recent weeks.

United have led 1-0 at half-time in their past three fixtures only to be pegged back after the interval, something Rangnick has looked to address with the help of club psychologist Sascha Lense.

The second-half setbacks have seen the Red Devils knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties by Middlesbrough and drop Premier League points with 1-1 draws against Burnley and Southampton.

Rangnick admits his side have been unable to keep up their intensity for 90 minutes and now the interim boss wants to see improvement.

“The situation is pretty clear. In 11 out of 13 games since I arrived we scored the first goal and we were 1-0 up – but we didn’t win all of them,” he said.

“Especially in the last three games it was very sad that we didn’t win those games. This cost us four points in the league and the next round in the cup.

“The players understand and feel how and why we are doing a good job and now it’s about doing that sustainably for an entire game and this is exactly what our next step is that we have to take.

“We didn’t concede a single goal the last weeks in the first half, but the next step is to raise our level and to stay focused physically, mentally, tactically, we just gave away those goals too easily.

“Look at all those goals that we conceded in the second half. It was just too easy and it was also our own mistakes that we made to allow the other teams to score.”

Rangnick brought in Lense as part of his backroom staff when he was placed in interim charge following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – and he is already