Ralf Rangnick reveals he has asked club psychologist Sascha Lense to help Manchester United stars get over costly habit of giving away leads as interim boss insists his players ‘are not robots’
- Ralf Rangnick is desperate to solve Man United’s problem of giving away leads
- United threw away one-goal advantages to Burnley and Southampton recently
- Rangnick is aware of the problem and says his players ‘are humans, not robots’
- Club psychologist Sascha Lense has been roped in to help Rangnick’s players
Ralf Rangnick says Manchester United’s players aren’t robots and has asked the club’s psychologist Sascha Lense to help cure their costly habit of throwing away leads.
United have gone ahead in their last three games against Middlesbrough, Burnley and Southampton only to be pegged back in the second half.
Rangnick admits it has damaged his players’ confidence and is using Lense, the psychologist he brought in when he became United’s interim manager, to try to solve the problem.
Ralf Rangnick is desperate to stop Man United throwing away leads amid an alarming run
He said: ‘The situation is pretty clear: in 11 of 13 games we scored the first goal and we didn’t win all of them. In the last three games, it was very sad we didn’t win those games. It cost us four points in the league and a place in the next round of the FA Cup.
‘When you concede an equaliser, this also affects the mind of the players. We should be 3-0 or 4-0 up and all of a sudden it’s 1-1.
‘It affects the mind-set of the players. They are human beings, not robots. There are two things: number one is we have to be more effective to score a second and third goal to kill the game off.
The Red Devils failed to hold on to a one-goal advantage against Burnley and Southampton
Rangnick has enlisted club psychologist Sascha Lense to help United get over the problem
‘Even if this does not happen, just stick to the game plan, stay solid, stay tactically disciplined, and this is what we have to achieve and take the next step.
‘If you concede early in the second half, this affects the confidence of the players. I spoke with Sascha about that and we speak to the players one by one about why we conceded the goal and what we should do to score a second or a third goal.
‘The first halves have been really good, we didn’t concede a single goal. The next step is to raise our level and stay focused, physically, mentally, tactically. We gave away those goals too easily. It was just too easy and it was our own mistakes we made to let the other team score.’
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