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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Samuel Meade

Man Utd players and Ralf Rangnick arrive at Lowry Hotel amid growing unrest

Manchester United's players have arrived at the Lowry ahead of their next game amid reported internal unrest regarding Ralf Rangnick's decisions.

The Red Devils dropped points in midweek as they surrendered a 1-0 lead at Burnley to draw.

It allowed their top four rivals to cut the gap and United go in to the weekend sitting sixth, below West Ham United and Arsenal.

United will host Southampton at Old Trafford in Saturday's early kick-off, a side they drew to earlier in the campaign.

The Saints came from behind to see off Tottenham in midweek and will head north full of confidence as Rangnick deals with issues on the training ground.

The interim boss bought with him new staff after being appointed back in December.

One of whom was American Chris Armas, who has taken on a lead role at Carrington.

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That decision has not gone down well with the club's current crop of stars with ESPN reporting that some players are baffled by how much influence Armas has in training with Rangnick allegedly delegating large parts of session to him.

Armas last role with Toronto FC did not end well, but the United interim boss thought highly enough of him to bring him into the fold in Manchester.

Rangnick has publicly backed his assistant and dismissed the rumours of discontent at training, insisting he is "very helpful" and enjoys the respect of the players.

He said: "We haven't worked together before that, the same is true with Ewan Sharp but with Chris Armas, we knew each other from our mutual time with Red Bull when he was head coach and assistant coach with New York Red Bulls.

"He's very helpful, not only very loyal but also very helpful and it's very helpful he's a native speaker.

"He knows how to communicate with players and he also had a high level of respect now from the players, they know that he's a good guy and also a good expert in different areas. I'm very happy to have him on board."

Rangnick is also confident that his United side have improved in recent weeks, even if performances continue to be below expectations.

The German was satisfied with their showing in the first-half at Turf Moor as he cited their gradual increase in control.

He said: "I can only tell you what I have experienced in the last few weeks. I'd even say they were good had we won at Burnley. It is about improving in terms of performance and results.

"The team has developed, even the players realise themselves how much they have improved, especially in control of the game."

Rangnick opted to leave Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench for Tuesday's stalemate with the Portuguese star called on for the final 20 minutes.

United's No 7 has gone five games without a goal and, whilst not blaming Ronaldo specifically, the interim boss did admit he needs to be finding the net more.

He added: "It's not only about Cristiano Ronaldo. He should score more goals, it's obvious.

"I think we are creating enough chances and and enough opportunities in the last couple of games but we just didn't score enough goals, but this is not only an issue with Cristiano, it's an issue with the other players, especially the offensive players. We don't score enough goals."

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