Ralf Rangnick shrugs off Old Trafford boos for substituting Mason Greenwood in Man United defeat to Wolves

Ralf Rangnick paid little attention to Manchester United fans’ angry reaction to Mason Greenwood being substituted during Monday’s defeat to Wolves.

Many around Old Trafford booed when, on the hour mark, young forward Greenwood was taken off for Bruno Fernandes after putting in a lively display amid an ineffective performance from the United frontline.

Fernandes went on to hit the crossbar from a great opening forged by Nemanja Matic, before seeing a 96th-minute free-kick saved by Jose Sa.

“It was 0-0” Rangnick explained on Sky Sports. “We had our better moments in the part of the game so we decided to bring on Bruno. He had the big chance to put us 1-0 ahead.

“Mason was good but I had to take somebody off and didn’t want to take one of our [central midfielders] off. So the question was do I take off Edi [Cavani] or Mason. I decided to take off Mason.”

Joao Moutinho earned Wolves the win after 82 minutes with Bruno Lage’s side good value for the three points - in contrast to the Red Devils who suffered a first loss under interim Rangnick.

He added: "We didn't play well at all, neither individually nor collectively. In the first-half, we had big problems to keep them away from our box and from our goal.

"Second-half, we changed to a different formation with a back three and we had more control in the second half of the game, had then a spell of 15 minutes where we could have scored, hit the crossbar.

"But the goal that we conceded again showed... We had enough players in the box, but we allowed [Adama] Traore, back to goal, to turn and gain speed and bring in the cross.

"The cross had already been defended by Phil Jones, but again the goal that we conceded was one of too many this season where Moutinho could just shoot completely unmarked with no problems, no pressure at all and therefore we are very disappointed about the result, but also about parts of our performance."