Rangnick ponders Man United player fitness levels

Interim Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick is unsure whether a lack of fitness is an issue for his players but accepts they must make sure their physicality matches their technical ability.

After bowing out of the FA Cup at home to Middlesbrough and being held at Burnley in the Premier League, the out-of-sorts Red Devils again started well only to draw 1-1 against Southampton on Saturday.

It could have been worse at Old Trafford, where Saints boss – and former RB Leipzig colleague – Ralph Hasenhuttl said: "it's not a big secret that when they lose the ball their reverse gear is not always the best."

Rangnick acknowledged it was difficult to become a pressing team mid-season having succeeded Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November, leading to a question as to whether a lack of fitness was more of an issue than attitude.

"To be honest, I don't know if we are not fit enough in order to play that way because, as you said, I came in the middle of the season," the German said ahead of Tuesday's match against Brighton.

"We had no pre-season (together) and in essence only maybe two weeks in total in between where we could train in a normal way.

"If I watched the team in training and the way that it's being prepared for games, I wouldn't allow myself to say we are not fit enough to play like that.

"I don't think that this is the case because then we would also struggle in the last 20 minutes of the game and both against Burnley and (on Saturday) in the game I think we showed that we were physically able to again play forward.

"We didn't always take the right decisions, we were not as composed and not structured enough in the way that we played in the first half compared to the last half-hour.

"We were a little bit erratic in those moments.