Ralf Rangnick makes Manchester United admission after Man City defeat

Ralf Rangnick insists he already knew the mammoth size of the task at Manchester United before their latest humbling by City.

United were thrashed 4-1 at the Etihad as City secured their first domestic derby double since 2019-20 to open up a 22-point chasm between the Manchester sides.

In the final 15 minutes, United had just eight per cent of possession and were pilloried for their performance by former captains and now pundits Gary Neville and Roy Keane.

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Rangnick is due to start a two-year consultancy role at United on July 1 and stressed the manner of United's thrashing by the Premier League leaders did not change his outlook on the squad.

"I knew that before I came," Rangnick stressed. "I wouldn’t have needed that game to be aware of that. For now, it is about developing the team, finishing the season as well as we possibly can and all the other things are issues that need to be spoken about and hopefully developed at the end of the season in the next transfer window.

"After 28 games, you are as far apart from each team as the table shows it. We knew it was a difficult game to come up for us. I think we did well in the first-half tactically, we had our moments, we could have scored one or two more goals in the first-half but we didn't.

"In the end, it is obvious they won and deserved to win the game and now for us we have to look ahead and make sure we play two good home games against Tottenham and against Atletico and hopefully win those two games."

When asked how far United were from competing with City, Rangnick replied: "Twenty-two points. And the second-half showed that if they are in their momentum and if they are 3-1 up it is almost impossible