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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
George Smith & Anil Kandola

Alan Shearer identifies key change Manchester United's players must make

Former Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer has urged Manchester United's players to start showing a "better attitude" ahead of tonight's FA Cup clash with Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Amid reports of unrest within the dressing room, United's players have been heavily criticised by those outside of Old Trafford recently, with their most recent performances having not met the standards required to play for the club of the Reds' magnitude.

It was hoped that the appointment of interim manager Ralf Rangnick in November would kick-start the beginning of a much-needed shift in mentality at Old Trafford, but recent performances have suggested otherwise, with the Reds having won just one of their last three matches.

Last Monday's 1-0 defeat to Wolves, which marked Rangnick's first defeat in the job, was a new low-point for United and the players have been urged to bulk their ideas up, with their mentality and attitude having been heavily questioned.

Shearer told BBC Sport : "First and foremost this interim manager has got to find a system that works for this set of players.

"This set of players need to show a better attitude going forward because, of late, it hasn't been anywhere near good enough from a lot of the players. That has to start tonight.

"The system that the manager has played up until now hasn't really worked, so we expect a little bit of a change to that tonight, in terms of the system and individuals.

"It's got to start tonight as it has to start somewhere for him and this squad."

In a bid to install a new lease life into his team, Rangnick has made five changes to his starting line-up this evening, with Fred, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford amongst those coming into the side.

However, Cristiano Ronaldo has missed out, with Rangnick confirming his absence is because of a muscle problem.

The German said: "I spoke to Cristiano yesterday before training and he said he'd had some problems for the last couple of days, spine minor problems and in the end we decided it would make more sense not to take any risks in a cup game that could last 120 minutes."

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