Ralf Rangnick believes Manchester United gained control of their FA Cup win over Aston Villa when Donny van de Beek came on.
Van de Beek replaced Edinson Cavani in the 72nd minute and United switched to a midfield diamond to counter Aston Villa’s dominance in midfield.
In the final ten minutes, Rangnick introduced Anthony Elanga and Jesse Lingard for Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes to freshen up a blunt attack and United saw out a tight contest relatively comfortably.
“The game against Villa today confirmed, with a minimum three central midfielders, we had problems in times of the game to control the centre of the pitch,” Rangnick explained.
“From the very moment when we changed to a diamond in the last 20 minutes, when Donny came on, from then on we controlled the game, we had our counter-attack situations. (MEN)