JAKARTA - Manchester United suffered their first defeat under interim coach Ralf Rangnick. They were humiliated by visiting Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 in the Premier League match on Monday night.
Joao Moutinho's strike in the 82nd minute gave Wolves their first win at Old Trafford since 1980 and moved Bruno Lage's side up to eighth in the table.
After poor form at home, United remain in seventh place with a collection of 31 points, four points behind Arsenal who currently hold fourth place in the Champions League.
Full-time at Old Trafford.#MUFC | #MUNWOL
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 3, 2022
Wolves created a number of chances in the first half but it was only eight minutes from the end that they took control of their game when Moutinho grabbed Phil Jones' header and fired it past David De Gea.
Rangnick, who was in charge of United until the end of the season after taking over from the sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has seen his side's performances falter with few signs of the pressing game he tried to show early in his tenure.
"We didn't play either individually or collectively. In the first half we had a big problem keeping them out of our net," Rangnick said.
"This game shows we still have a lot to improve. We made too many mistakes ourselves. I don't want to talk about individual performances from the players. This is a problem for the whole team. It doesn't make sense," he said.
The injured Jones made his first league appearance in almost two years as Rangnick fielded the former England centre-back in the absence of Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly.
The 29-year-old put in a solid display before a miscalculation in a header that led the ball to Moutinho and caused his team to concede.
Wolves had chances to take the lead in the first half as Daniel Podence, Ruben Neves and Nelson Semedo kept De Gea busy early in the game.
United created few chances in the first 45 minutes and Edison Cavani shot the ball off target when he could have found Mason Greenwood.
Greenwood was United's most creative player in the game and the home fans did not applaud Rangnick's decision to entice the player to include Bruno Fernandes.
Fernandes had a chance to put United ahead when he latched on to a low cross from Nemanja Matic but it still hit the net.
Then a header from Ronaldo sent the ball into the net after receiving Fernandes' cross but the goal was ruled out for offside.
Wolves didn't want to slow down and didn't want to draw when Romain Saiss' free kick sent the ball into the post.
The visitors' efforts paid off when Moutinho slotted the ball flat past De Gea.
"Winning here at Old Trafford against a big team feels great for us," Moutinho said.
"We came to play football, play with the ball, that's what we did. We created a lot of shots in the first half. We controlled everything. We let them create only one chance," he said.
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