Ralf Rangnick admits members of Man Utd squad are 'unhappy' but calls for togetherness
Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has admitted certain members of his squad are "unhappy" amid reports of dressing room turmoil at the club.
It has been suggested that morale has dwindled in recent weeks, with cliques forming as a result of a number of players becoming disillusioned with their lack of game time under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his successor Rangnick.
Earlier this week it was revealed that morale was at an all-time low after Man Utd's 1-0 defeat to Wolves and as many as 11 players want to leave the club, while several are even said to be unimpressed with Rangnick's coaching, tactics and assistants.
Pressed on the issue in his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round on Monday night, the German claimed he "didn't know" about the mood within the camp.
"I can only tell you about the squad," he said. "Obviously, I don't know about the atmosphere inside the club, the players, locker room, coaching staff, everybody was very disappointed after the game [against Wolves], the performance.
"Now we have four days of training, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow before the Aston Villa game, and our job is to show a different performance against Aston Villa."
Asked about how deep United's problems currently run, Rangnick responded: "This is not only an issue with a club like Manchester United. When you have a big squad, in the last two games, we had most of the players available. We had three centre-backs missing against Wolves.
"In general, we had most of the players available, apart from Paul Pogba and ten few players can play, three subbed, then you have quite a number of players who don't even play or not even in the squad.
"Those players are unhappy about the situation, it's obvious, clear. I tend to explain to players every two or three weeks why they are not playing and that is an issue in our team and other clubs."
He added: "We have players with contracts expiring in the summer. We also have one or two more people who want to leave and are under contract. It's about the players dealing with that in a professional way, showing up in training, showing up, getting a chance to play.
"If this is not the case, the player, club, and agents need to discuss the situation. I cannot say to anyone else. I will address that to the players directly.
"We have made some progress but obviously versus Wolves was a step back, a relapse to habits we have shown in the past.
"We need to insist we that we need to work together. We can only get better in possession of the ball, together. We have to do things together. With passion, emotion and intensity."