Interim Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick claimed his players exceeded his expectations following their win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The German was overseeing his first game in charge of the club, a fixture won by a late strike from the often-maligned Fred.
Much has been made about the radical change in approach Rangnick’s appointment will likely bring and, clearly, the short time he’s had to work with the team did not help, though United looked impressive when out of possession at times.
“Overall I am more than happy,” United boss Rangnick said.
“I was positively surprised by the physical state and intensity.
“The first half hour was amazing. I felt it was extremely high tempo, high intensity, always on the front.
“The only thing that was missing in this first half hour was scoring one or two, if not three, goals.
“But it was clear that you cannot play the whole game, 90 minutes, on this kind of intensity level.
“But, still, even after that we had control of the game. Second half, we started the game well and, in the end, we deserve to win.
“I am more than happy with the clean sheet. Beautiful goal with this weak right foot from Fred and, as I said, for me, it was about gaining control and we had control most of the time of the game.
“Maybe the last three or four minutes, of course, they took all the risk they could, we had to defend a few corner kicks and free-kicks but we did that in a very brave way.”
