Interim Manchester United coach Ralph Rangnick criticized his team's performance in the first half after their 3-1 victory over Brentford in the English Premier League yesterday, Wednesday, and commented on the reaction of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo after being substituted in the second half of the match.

Brentford excelled in the first half over the visitors, who owe their goalkeeper David de Gea the credit, after saving more than one chance, before Anthony Elanga, Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford scored a hat-trick after the break.

United achieved an important victory as they sought to finish the season in the semi-finals, but Rangnick was not satisfied with what he saw in the first half.

"To be fair, without De Gea and saving him a lot of chances, things were difficult," Rangnick told reporters. "We were bad with our passes, we didn't play hard in tackles, and we lost even positions. We were nervous when we started on the counter-attack."

"Brentford was fierce and brave in every aspect that we talked about during the break."

Ronaldo is angry at coach Rangnick's decision to replace him in the Brentford-Manchester United match.

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- Al Jazeera - Sports (@AJASports) January 19, 2022

And it seemed that what Rangnick talked about during the break paid off, United were completely different in the second half.

United are two points behind West Ham United in fourth place and have a game in hand, but Ronaldo's reaction overshadowed the victory when he was replaced by defender Harry Maguire when the result was 2-0.

Anger loomed over Ronaldo, who missed the last two matches with injury, and threw his jacket before continuing to express his anger on the bench.

When you get subbed off for Harry Maguire.

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— Sasha Goryunov (@Slasherrrr) January 19, 2022

Rangnick said: His reaction was, “Why me?” I told him that I was making the decision in favor of the team because we were leading 2-0 at (Aston Villa) and in the end we drew 2-2 and I was angry that the style of play was not changed to 5 defenders.

"I decided to play with five defenders with Harry Maguire. (Ronaldo) was not happy, he is a top scorer and he wants to stay on the field and score. But it was important to play intensely in defence."

"I told him that I understand his position, but maybe when you are a coach after several years, you will make the same decision. I did not expect him to hug me, but there is no problem with him."